If I Knew

Felicia stretched the next morning before snuggling into Marc. She looked up at him and watched the smile spread across his face.

“Your boobs are touching me,” he smirked with his eyes still closed.

She giggled as he curled his arms around her. The night before had been perfect, the start of something new between them. Everything he had thought about for two years, wondered about if Eric hadn’t interrupted them, had actually happened. Felicia Todd was half naked in his hotel room. If it hadn’t meant he would embarrass himself tremoundsly, he would’ve climbed onto the bed and jumped up and down.

Instead, he pulled her on top of him and kissed her, because he could.

He knew later he'd catch hell from Jordan, and likely an inquisition about what his motives were when it came to Felicia. He knew Eric would smirk and tell him he told him so (because two weeks after the barn incident, Eric had asked him why he let Felicia leave, why he hadn't went after her, and told him that one day he'd regret not being honest with himself, probably around the time he got his shit together and realized that she was a great girl and someone you'd want to spend your life with and finally breakdown and tell her how he really felt).

He knew though that he didn't care what either of them had to say. He had the girl. For all the years he had loathed her very existence, Felicia was now his. He could tell people that his girlfriend owned his heart, no matter how sappy that made him. He could call her now for no reason other than simply to hear her voice. He could kiss her and hold her and posses her because she let him, because she felt in her heart the same as he did.

It was the best feeling in the entire world.

Life was good.

As they lay in bed the night before after their first time together, Felicia had delicately trailed her fingers across his chest and reveled in the feelings overtaking her, confirming to herself that this was real. In a matter of hours, everything she'd always known to be true changed and she was happy for it. Letting go of their past was easy. It was a different life that neither had any interest in.

She had daydreamed once or twice (ok, maybe a dozen or so times) in the two years since the kiss about what her life would be like with Marc. She had wondered how they would fit into each other's lives, what it would be like to make love with him, to wake up beside him. Now she knew anything she could have imagined was nowhere near as perfect as the real thing.

Now she understood better people who fell hard and fast. Everything she thought she felt for Marc before had been immediately magnified and explosive when they had kissed outside the bar. She thought she might love Marc before but as soon as their lips collided, when she wrapped her arms around him, she knew there was no thinking involved. She was head over heels for Marc Staal. Every piece of her heart and soul were with him. And she felt in his kiss all her feelings reciprocated.

She was in his sweatpants with no shirt on and he was in just a pair of boxer briefs when he rolled her on top of him. She pressed her chest to his with a devilish smile. "We have to get up."

"Why? This is nice," Marc answered her.

"Because we want to make the Olympic team, that's why. Now get dressed, Staal."

"Wanna shower with me?" He asked with a leering wiggle of his eyebrows.

"We'll never leave this room if we do that."

"That's doesn't sound all bad. Besides, if we leave, then I'll have to kill Neal and maim Nash."

"You're not a fighter," Felicia pointed out as she rolled off of him, swinging her legs off the bed and standing.

"Maybe not but I could still take them."

"Keep telling yourself that," she laughed.

Marc sprang off the bed after her and gathered her to him, holding her tightly. "Anyone that hurts you, looks at you wrong, checks you out, I don't care. I will fight them. And I'll kick their ass too."

"That's adorable. Perfectly adorable."

"It's macho, not adorable."

She ducked away from him and moved behind him, pushing him towards the bathroom. "Adorably macho," she humored him. "Now go!"

Ten minutes later, Marc was showered and dressed and walking her back to her own room, Felicia with the waist of his sweatpants rolled down a few times and one of his t-shirts thrown on with his rangers sweat shirt over that. Her feet were bare and she carried her heels in her hands, her dress shoved into her purse.

He waited on her to change before they headed down for breakfast in one of the hotel ballrooms. Felicia squeezed his hand in hers before they split off, Marc joining his brothers and Felicia joining the rest of the female players. She spotted her best friend in Boston, her teammate Kelly, and joined her.

"Where the hell were you last night and did I just see you walk in with Marc Staal?"

"We know each other. You know I'm from Thunder Bay, right?"

"Yeah but you've never mentioned knowing him or his brothers."

In truth, it was a part of Felicia's life she did not share with many people. She had learned the hard way that some people did not have the best of intentions when they found out she knew the brothers. Kelly though was happily married and Felicia was pretty sure she wasn't going to be one of those girls.

"Jordan is my best friend. We've been friends our whole lives. I was the best woman at his wedding." She scanned the other side of the room and waved when she caught Jordan's eye. He grinned goofily and waved back. Eric looked over and waved also.

"Eric was as much a big brother to me as he was to his actual brothers. I was there with the family when he won the cup."

"And Marc? Because he can't keep his eyes off you."

She looked for Marc and their eyes met, sharing a smile between them before she turned back to Kelly. "We hated each other growing up and for a lot of years after. But um, he's my boyfriend now."

"And he's ridiculously in love with you," Kelly pointed out. "How long have you two been together?"

Felicia blushed and snuck a glance in Marc's direction. God he was handsome and now he was all hers. "Last night," she admitted.

"Last night?"

"It's a long story that I will tell you later but we had a moment last night and we owned up to our feelings for each other. Now we're together.”

She shared stories with Kelly about her childhood through the rest of breakfast until Jordan sauntered over and pulled her out of her chair, wishing her luck in the opening day of camp. She hugged him fiercely and told him the same, introducing him quickly to Kelly before they separated. Eric waved as he passed by with a knowing smile.

“I hope we were safe last night, Fe,” he teased.

“Shut it, E. Staal,” Felicia warned. He laughed before pulling her into a hug.

“You know I have to look out for you. You’re like a sister. Probably will be one day,” he winked.

“It’s barely been twelve hours.”

“This is two years in the making. And for the record, just know that I called this. We all have the same lovestruck puppy look and Marc had it bad two weeks later.”

Felicia blushed but the truth was, she loved hearing what Eric had to say. She loved knowing that the things she had felt after the kiss left Marc as confused as it did her, that her feelings were mutual. She didn’t care if it was crazy to say I love you as quickly as they had. She was happy. That feeling carried her through the day.

For the rest of camp, Felicia focused her energies on learning the team Canada systems and trying to prove her worth to the powers that be. The womens team usually ate lunch together while the mens teams ate with each other. Felicia had dinner with Jordan one night, a late night spent catching up and laughing at old memories and with Marc the following night, They got room service and ate in the middle of Marc’s hotel bed. She invited Kelly to join her and the brothers their last night there.

When camp was over, Felicia flew with the brothers back to Thunder Bay. She had taken a leave from her job for the month of August after finding out she had been invited to orientation camp and planned on going to see her parents after it was complete anyways. The change in her plans was that she was coming home with a boyfriend.

The foursome parted ways at the airport, the three brothers headed for their parents and Felicia to her folks. Linda and Henry had planned a welcome home barbeque for later that day for all four of them, Felicia as much a part of the family as their own boys. It would mostly be family and close friends but as the time drew nearer to head over, she found herself becoming more and more nervous. Her parents had been surprised by her news that she and Marc were seeing each other and she suspected they wouldn’t be the only ones.

Felicia followed her parents up the driveway of the Staal home, wringing her hands together. Her dad, Alan, knocked and the door was opened moments later by Marc, who smiled broadly, greeting her parents and hugging them both. He smiled at her and Felicia stepped closer to him wrapping her arms around his middle and holding him tight. Marc kissed the top of her head and her mother Kira smiled at her husband. Linda appeared around the corner then.

“I never thought I’d see a day where you two would actually tolerate each other, let alone decide you should try dating,” Linda mused.

“Me either,” Felicia smiled, disentangling herself from Marc to hug the woman who was more or less her second mother.

Marc took Felicia’s hand in his and led her outside. Tucked at his side, she felt safe and at ease as people eyed them curiously. It was no secret in their town that she and Marc had never seen eye to eye. She noticed a few people whispering, glancing in their direction, no doubt speculating about what had happened between them. In the end though, what they they thought didn’t matter to either of them. They had each other, and that was all they needed.

They stayed in Thunder Bay until the first of September, when Marc needed to go back to New York to prepare for the upcoming season. Felicia had gone with him, spending a few days in the city and seeing it through Marc’s eyes before leaving for Boston for her own training camp with the Blades. They got through the distance between them with a lot of text messages, phone calls, and skype. As the days turned to weeks, and then months, Marc and Felicia found a way to be happy together, without actually being together.