And So I Know

Derick woke the next morning to the text message tone on his phone going off in succession. He groaned as he reached for his phone, reading the texts from his sister first which caused him to sit upright in bed. He cursed and stumbled out of bed, pulling on sweatpants and a t shirt and then his feet into a pair of flip flops before heading out of his apartment and upstairs to Felicia and Marc’s place.

Until her move to New York, Felicia had only been to two of their home games and had mostly flown under the radar during her visits. When she moved though, and began to appear at every Rangers home game, a few people noticed, recognizing her from her own successful career. Some had speculated if it had anything to do with her connection to Marc, being from the same hometown. Neither had responded to any of the talk that was out there and at the time, her pregnancy was still a secret. Now that secret was out of the bag, the talk had heated back up, people speculating on who the baby’s father was.

And that speculation was now squarely on Derick. Her presence with the team the night before had not gone unnoticed and someone had snapped a picture of him and Felicia sitting beside each other, noting that they had also left together. Which was true, he had left with Felicia, and Marc, and all three of them took a cab together back to their building. Marc’s presence was absent from the story that his sister had sent to him.

Marc pulled open the door to his apartment, rubbing his face. “You know she’s not going to be up for at least another thirty minutes,” Marc said, letting Derick inside.

“I know, but this can’t wait.” He handed his phone to Marc. “My sister sent me the link to this this morning. I know it’s just a bunch of people gossiping anonymously but they think Fe and I are together, and that I’m her secret baby daddy.”

Marc groaned. “I guess it’s time I give an interview, eh?”

“You can ignore it. I’m not going to talk about it. And it’s not like any of the people that cover the team would even think about pushing either of us about it.”

Felicia walked out, yawning and stretching her arms over her head. “Morning, Derick. What brings you up here so early?” she asked as she moved into the kitchen.

Derick looked to Marc who followed her. “Brass’ sister texted him this morning. Seems the gossip is that he’s your baby daddy.”

“What?!” Felicia yelped in surprise. “Are you serious?”

“Someone took a picture of us at the bar last night, and said they saw us leave together,” Derick added.

“But Marc was with us too,” Felicia said.

“They conveniently left that detail out,” Marc replied. “Look, Flea, I’m gonna give an interview, tell people that we’re together, and that we’re having a baby.”

“But it’s not anyone else’s business. Why do we have to say anything?”

“We don’t but it’s not a secret. Our families know, the team knows, and you have basically made Brass your new Jordan so unless you plan on abandoning him now, I’d really rather not have people thinking my girlfriend is banging my teammate.”

“I mean, there are worse people that they could think I was banging. I wear Rick’s jersey sometimes. They could think we were doing the Nashty.”

Derick snorted, trying to cover his laugh but as soon as Felicia started laughing, he burst out laughing with her. Marc glared at the pair of them. “Can we go back to when Jordan was your only best friend and you didn't llive in the same building, or even the same state?”

“Do you need a hug, Marc? Brassy, tell Marc something encouraging in french.”

“Vous êtes la plus jolie, Staalsie,” Derick smiled.

“Ok, now do me,” Felicia demanded.

“Vous êtes devenu ma personne préférée, quelqu'un que je peux faire confiance et compter sur. Merci de m'avoir permis de faire partie de votre vie.”

Felicia smiled softly and came around to hug Derick. “I still have no idea what you said but I’m positive it was something really, really nice.”

“You have become my favorite person, someone I can trust and rely on. Thank you for letting me be a part of your life,” Derick said quietly. “Both of you.”

“Awww!” Felicia squealed, hugging Derick more tightly. “Marc Staal, get in on this hug, right now. And don't tell Jordan I have a new best friend." He grumbled but made his way across the room to wrap his arms around both Felicia and Derick.

"If you tell anyone about this, I will kill you," Marc muttered with a smile.

Back at his own place an hour and a half later (because Fe had insisted on making breakfast since they were all up anyway), Derick called his mom. He wasn't looking forward to the conversation but knew he couldn't avoid having it. Not after ignoring her first five calls.

As he expected, his mom answered and launched directly into chastising him for not telling his family he had a new girlfriend, for lying when he told her Felicia was just a friend after she had called her out of the blue for a soup recipe, all in a flurry of French that made his head hurt. Just as she wound down about not having even met Felicia, and as Derick opened his mouth to tell his mom what was really going on, she picked up steam and launched into lecturing him about getting a girl pregnant.

He sighed as he put his mom on speaker and set the it on the coffee table in his living room as he settled into his couch. He closed his eyes and let his mom rant, knowing she only meant well. Maybe he should have called his sister first. At least her response to the article had been that Fe was hot, and good for him for moving on.

Of course, neither of them had bothered to do the math to realize that if he had knocked up Felicia, it would mean he had been cheating on Janelle but maybe that was a good thing. He could just imagine the tirade his mom would have gone on if she thought he had been cheating in his relationship.

"Mom," he finally interrupted. "Can I talk, please?"

She huffed out a breath. "Go ahead; I can't wait to hear this explanation."

"I'm not the father."

"Derick Brassard!" She exclaimed. "Your father and I did not raise a son that would shirk his responsibilities. We expect you to do right by that woman."

Derick rolled his eyes. "Mom, listen. Felicia and I are friends. We live in the same building. She's dating Marc Staal. He's my teammate."

"You got your teammates girlfriend pregnant?!"

"No! Marc and Felicia are pregnant. Their families know, and they told the team but that's it. They've been together since summer but they've known each other their whole lives. Fe moved into the building in February and we became friends."

"But that article....."

"Was all gossip. The whole team was out and Fe sat down with me because her feet hurt. Me, her, and Marc all left at the same time and shared a cab. Marc was left out of the story though."

"Why would someone make up such a thing?"

"Because speculating on the identity of Felicia's baby daddy is what people do. They suspect it's one of us but don't now who. Marc and Fe haven't acknowledged publicly that they're together. But people have seen her here and after she made her retirement official and announced her pregnancy, everyone decided it was their business."

"That poor girl. She was so sweet when she called for my chicken noodle soup recipe."

"And I told you then that we were just friends."

"Yes, but you didn't say she had a boyfriend so there was hope that you had maybe found a nice girl after that tramp Janelle. And then she's pregnant and people are saying it's yours."

"Marc is going to give an interview to set the record straight soon. You can't talk about this though, mom. If anyone asks you, just say no comment."

"This is all so crazy, Derick."

"Yeah, mom, I know. It'll be fine though and next time you visit I'll introduce you to Fe. You'll like her."

"Well of course I'll like her. I gave her my soup recipe, didn't I?"