One More Night

“I don’t know what else to tell you!” Marc snapped. The whole court procedure was grinding on his nerves, because after insisting they needed to give it a real shot Robyn had agreed, all but on a whim, that a divorce was best. And now she and that asshole figured that they deserved a large chunk of Marc’s money and one of the properties he owned, either the house in Thunder Bay or the condo here in Manhattan. All in all Marc was ready to punch somebody’s lights out.

“Mr. Staal, you need to calm down,” the lawyer was just as bad, treating him as if he was some spoiled child acting out. They probably all thought he was; some bigwig hockey player who’d got too big for his britches and wanted out of his marriage. Already there were whispers going around about the infidelities that had ruined his marriage, and while he’d heard stories from either side, nobody seemed to realize or know that it wasn’t just one or the other who’d been unfaithful. So people either sympathized with him or glared at him with such disdain he nearly wanted to puke.

“I’m sorry, but she cheats on me for a year with him and they think they should get this kind of money and my house? Where’s that fair?” he demanded, sitting down hard in the straight-backed chair. He was getting another headache; they’d been pretty common since his life had turned upside down. His parents hadn’t spoken to him in almost three weeks, still digesting the fact that their son had lied and cheated amongst everything else, and Jared only spoke to him when necessary. Jared’s anger he understood – he more than deserved it. Thankfully Jordan and Eric were a little more understanding of his circumstances.

“I’m really sorry, I just… I can’t do this at this particular moment. Is it okay if we take this up again tomorrow? I’ve got a killer headache,” Marc apologized, but noticed the lawyer looked almost smug about his admission. One of the guys had recommended this lawyer, but as far as Marc could tell he was just there to say he was working with members of the Rangers – he seemed to have no compassion or even response to how Marc was feeling.

He packed up and went back to Girardi’s home – they’d graciously offered the spare bedroom in the basement to him while he was getting things sorted out. He’d told them everything, and while Dan had been angry, confused and surprised, he was as supportive as Marc could have ever asked. Their home held such a sense of normalcy that Marc desperately needed, that he spent as much time as he could without feeling like he was impeding. More than once he’d offered to stay in and look after their son Andrew so the two of them could go out and have their ‘date night’.

So when he saw a strange vehicle parked in the driveway Marc wasn’t sure what to think. It could have easily been a member of Dan or Kayla’s family, but usually they picked them up from the airport, rather than anybody getting a rental car. He shrugged it off though, getting his laptop bag and proceeding to go inside.

“Hey, who’s—”

Marc didn’t even get to finish his sentence when a fist connected with his face. He fell backwards, hitting the floor hard as the world spun around him. His hand had immediately come up to cover his face, and he could feel warm blood gushing out of his nostrils.

“Holy shit…” he groaned, curling himself into a ball to protect his face and stomach. He didn’t know what was going on, but whoever threw that punch knew what they were doing.

“Oh my God!” Kayla’s voice rang out before she was beside Marc’s head, lifting him up and trying to pull his hands away from his face so she could assess the damage.

“So this is him?” a deep voice asked. Kayla didn’t say anything to him, instead ran to find a towel or a cloth to try and clean up the mess of blood. Marc managed to look up, seeing a towering man standing in the hall. He had dark hair, deep brown eyes; one of those strong jaws with a five o’clock shadow. He was well-built, and Marc figured that this guy was even bigger than he was, both height and weight-wise.

“Who the hell are you? Why’d you punch me?” he asked, too afraid to stand up or move in case the guy took another swing. He heard footsteps on the stairs and turned to see Dan, who froze as he took in the scene in front of him.

“Jesus! I told you to stay in the kitchen,” he groaned, walking over and helping Marc to his feet. He looked between the two men, pinching his nose all the while to stem the flow of blood.

“Will somebody tell me what’s going on?”

“Marc, this is Viktor,” Marc froze mid-step, turning to look the man over again. That said, he could immediately see the resemblance he’d missed earlier.

“You’re Bree’s brother?” he quietly asked, and the huge man nodded, not offering a hand to Marc. Not that he blamed the guy.

“Yeah, and I assume you’re the guy she was seeing over the summer?” it was Marc’s turn to nod, even though he saw Dan and Kayla both wince slightly at the question. There were times when Marc was sure they forgot that Robyn hadn’t been the only one cheating.

“Yeah, I am. What I don’t understand is why you’re here,” Marc let Kayla fuss over him as she cleaned up the worst of the blood before getting him some Kleenex to catch any of the blood that escaped him pinching the bridge of his nose. Once she was satisfied she sat down next to Dan at the kitchen table while Marc turned to Bree’s brother.

“Because she’s too proud to come and talk to you, and I think it needs to be done,” he explained. Marc’s brow furrowed as he racked his brain trying to come up with an explanation for Viktor’s statement.

“What are you talking about? I mean, I don’t understand… what needs to be done?” Marc asked, and the older man sighed. Marc knew that Viktor was four years his senior, but he looked to be even older than that, worry lines set in his forehead and he just appeared exhausted, adding ten years to his face.

“It’s… kind of hard to just come out and say,” he admitted, for the first time not sounding harsh. Mark let out a bark of a laugh, which had a few eyebrows raised.

“But punching me in the face was a good way to start?”

“I could do a hell of a lot worse than screw up your nose – don’t test me. Bree’s my baby sister and I’ll do anything to take care of her,” Viktor’s eyes flashed dangerously, giving Marc the impression that the doctor wasn’t kidding. She’d told him stories about her brother, and had the circumstances been different Marc was sure the two would have got along.

“I get it, sorry,”

“I just… Bree doesn’t even know that I’m here,” something gave Marc a bad feeling about this. It had to be something serious if Viktor had sought him out in New York – he must’ve found out who he was somehow.

That meant Bree must know who he was by now too. That meant she knew about Robyn and the whole mess.

His face must’ve paled, because Kayla and Dan looked worried. With a hard swallow, Marc took a deep breath.

“Is she okay?” he asked quietly, and this time it was Viktor’s turn for a rough, sarcastic laugh.

“Sure, she’s great. She found out watching a fucking hockey game that this fantastic guy she’d been with over the summer actually played for the team,” Marc shrunk into his seat at the accusing tone. “Not only that, but he was married. And all the while Bree didn’t have a clue.”

Marc didn’t know what to say. There was nothing that he could say that would ever make any of what he’d done right. And he knew in Viktor’s eyes he was probably the lowliest scum to ever walk the earth. So instead he kept his eyes averted, and his mouth shut.

“I find this out through Anna, who’d suspected from what Bree told her but didn’t want to ask. Bree’s been torn up about all of this, and I can’t stand to watch my baby sister like that,”

“I’m so sorry,” Marc was on the verge of breaking down, the thought of Bree finding out like that and going through so much pain because of him too much to bear. It didn’t go unnoticed by the other three people in the room, and Viktor hated to admit it but he had to give Marc some credit. He didn’t seem to be the heartless asshole that he’d originally pegged the hockey player to be.

“Do you care about her?”

“That’s an understatement,” Marc managed to get out. “She means the world to me. I think about her all the time… I was going to tell her, but I wimped out. I couldn’t stand to see the disappointment and the pain I caused her or hear her say she didn’t want anything to do with me again. So I was a complete fucking coward and when I broke it off didn’t say a word. But I never wanted her to find out like this; please you have to believe me. Once all the divorce settlement calmed down I was going to call her and talk to her because everyone in Thunder Bay would be talking about it and she should have heard it from me.”

“Divorce?” Viktor seemed surprised, and Marc nodded, knowing he was dangerously close to tears.

“Yeah… my wife was cheating on me for a year and I caught her with the other guy…”

“Shit,” Viktor shook his head, a small, solemn smile on his face. Marc shrugged, not sure what to think and still stumbling over the fact that Bree was in bad enough shape that Viktor was here. It made Marc sick, knowing that it was all on his shoulders too.

“Yeah, things haven’t been good for far too long… if I’m going to be honest with myself we probably shouldn’t have ever got married,” he sighed, and Kayla teared up a little bit. She’d tried to help as much as she could during the crazy season last year to help Marc try to fix things with Robyn.

“That doesn’t change a thing,”

“I know, I know… I just wish that I’d realized that things weren’t going to work when they were first that bad –everything else would have been different,” Marc explained, and Viktor let out a long breath.

“Yeah, probably,”

“Sorry, I got off topic… um… what was it that you wanted to tell me?” Marc asked, realizing just how he’d managed to steer the conversation away. Viktor tensed for a second before turning to Marc and meeting his gaze.

“Bree’s pregnant,”