‹ Prequel: The Ice Queen

Pursuit of Happiness

001:

“Alyssa? What are you doing here?” he asked as I stood in his doorway staring at his confused face, “Where’s Looch?”

“I need your help Horty,” I said and Nathan looked at me and sighed, he nodded his head and then moved out of the way to let me walk into his home in Columbus, Ohio, “How are you liking it here?”

“It’s nice, definitely quieter than Boston,” he said and I nodded my head and watched him close the door and look back at me, “Are you all right?” Nathan asked and I looked down, “I heard about your retirement- I’m so sorry, Red.”

“I don’t want to retire,” I breathed and then felt arms around my neck and I was pushed into my friend’s chest.

“It’ll be all right, Alyssa- It will, you’ve got Milan and the others there to help you,” he said and I just started to cry into his chest, I felt him rub my back, “Do they know you’re here?”

“No,” I mumbled when I pulled back, “I don’t know why- I just left- I couldn’t be there anymore-“

“Alyssa, they’re probably worried sick about you! Milan’s probably freaking out!” Nathan said and I looked down sadly and nodded my head, “Why would you do that?”

“I wasn’t thinking- I just- I just couldn’t do it- I left,” I said and he looked at me and sighed, I saw the disappointment in his eyes.

“Daddy,” I turned my head and saw Dylan, his four year old, “Auntie AJ!” he smiled brightly and ran to me, I bent down and hugged the little guy, I had missed him, but seeing him and his little brother, Zachary, wasn’t the reason I came to Columbus.

-Milan-
“Still no word-“

“No!” I growled as I looked at me Captain and then sighed, “Sorry.”

“You found her car at the airport- Where did she go?” Thornton asked and I looked at him and shook my head.

“The stupid attendant wouldn’t tell us,” I said and they just looked at me, Alyssa’s been missing for a day and I was worried, I actually got sick last night because I was freaking out.

We were all in the locker room, we were supposed to be getting ready for practice, but no one was in their gear, all trying to figure out where Alyssa would be. The white bored was erased of all play or line ideas and was replaced with locations and destinations, people she might run to and reasons why she left.

“Ok, so- you said you saw her car there around five- But when you checked out that parking lot at two, it wasn’t there,” Patrice said and Brad and I nodded our heads, “What time did you get home?”

“Two,” I said and he sighed and looked at the board.

“So we’ve got a big gap,” he said and I nodded my head.

“She could have left as soon as I left, so from eleven to three, she wasn’t at the airport,” I said and the guys looked at me and I ran my fingers through my hair, “I called her sister and Crosby to keep an eye out for her.”

“You think she would go to Washington?” Rask said and I looked at him.

“I doubt it,” I said and then sighed, “But I’m not ruling anything out,” my phone buzzed in my pocket and I jumped and quickly grabbed it to see that it was Crosby calling me, I didn’t even let him say anything, I didn’t even say hello, “Did you find her?”

“No, not the reason I’m calling,” Crosby said and I sighed and sat on the bench, “My whole team knows and they have their eye out for her, but it didn’t help that we’re in St. Louis right now.”

“Right,” I said and sighed.

“Help me out though- I haven’t gotten a call or anything- But why would she just leave?” he asked and I looked at the ground.

“I don’t know, she’s not thinking- She’s upset about the forced retirement,” I said and rubbed my face, “Marchand said that she’s acting the same way she acted when she was lied to about an injury-“

“Oh yeah, when her Mom paid the doctor to tell AJ that she couldn’t play hockey anymore,” Crosby said and I looked at Brad, he was looking at his phone across the room, “Shit, I’m sure it’s worse this time.”

“Yeah, we’ve got the whole locker room practically transformed into a PI service,” I said and Crosby sighed.

“I’m gunna give a call to Staal- He’s in DC right now- You never know, she might head there,” he said and rubbed my forehead.

“All right, thanks,” I said and looked at my teammates, “We know that she flew somewhere- We just don’t know where.”

“She flew out?” Crosby asked and then muttered something to someone else.

“Lucic,” I sat up at the new voice, “It’s Neal, you said she took a flight somewhere?”

“Yeah, we just don’t know where, the attendant at the desk wouldn’t tell us,” I said angrily.

“Do you know if she booked the flight on a laptop or computer- You can always look at the history to see where she might have booked the flight to,” he said and I was surprised because I never thought of that.

“I didn’t- I’m gunna look- Thanks man.”

“No problem, it’s what my brothers and I did when my sister decided to run away for a weekend- We tracked her down,” he said and I nodded my head.

“Thanks, I’ll let you know what I find,” I said and then hung up the phone and stood up.

“What’s going on?” Brad asked.

“I’m going home to see if she used the computer or laptop to book a flight, if she did- Hopefully it’ll be in the history,” I said and Brad’s eyes widened.

“That’s fuckin’ smart- Who gave you that idea? Crosby?”

“Neal,” I said and shrugged my shoulder, “Who knew?” I headed for the door, knowing that Brad was behind me, we left the Garden to head back to my place and check the computers.

“Yo Looch!” I heard Brad yell from my office, “She was on this one!” I rushed into the office and Brad moved out of my seat so that I could sit down, “Click here, maybe it’ll bring up her itinerary.”
I did, and then cursed when you needed a password, “I don’t know what it could be,” I sighed, not knowing the password, “Hey, wouldn’t the itinerary be emailed to her?”

“Yeah, do you know her email?” Brad asked and I nodded my head and pulled up a new tab on my computer and went to her email site, typed in the email and password and smiled when it appeared in front of me. I heard my phone go off on the desk, I looked down and saw Nathan calling me, I sighed and looked back at the computer. Brad picked it up for me, “Hey man, what’s up?” I scrolled through her email trying to find anything about a flight, but found nothing except conversations with different doctors about possible solutions to get her back on the ice.

‘…Oh Alyssa- I’m sorry…’ I thought as I rubbed my face and shook my head. I knew that she wanted to go onto the ice, wanted to play, but there was just no way that she could, and there was no doctor that was going to be able to change that.

“Looch,” Brad placed his hand on my shoulder and gave me a smile, handing me the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hey Milan,” I held the phone with my shoulder as I continued through the emails.

“Hey, I’m kind of busy-“

“She’s here,” he said and I nearly dropped the phone, “I know you’re looking for her- Alyssa’s here- She’s in Columbus.”

“She’s with you?” I asked and then breathed a sigh of relief and leaned my elbows against the desk and held my head.

“Yeah, she got here a few hours ago- I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner, I was trying to get away to call you- She doesn’t really want to be found,” he said and I sighed.

“Thanks for letting me know, Nate- It really means a lot,” I said and he let out a little chuckle.

“She likes to keep you on your toes, eh?” he said and I let out a laugh.

“You have no idea man- How is she?”

“Dylan and Zach are keeping her busy,” Nathan said and I sighed, “Here me out- I’ve got an idea.”

“All right.”

“Let her stay here for a few weeks, stay with the boys- Just to help get her mind off of this,” he said and I tensed, “You never know Looch, this might just help her want to settle down.”

“How long?”

“Like I said, a few weeks- Give it until Christmas,” he said and I looked at the calendar, five weeks.

“Christmas? You don’t want me to have contact with her until Christmas?” I asked and Nathan sighed.

“No, give that a few days, wait for her to call you- But I just want you to know that she’s safe,” he said and I sighed.

“All right, I’ll try this- I hope this works- Whatever I was doing wasn’t.”

“Just don’t give up on her man, I know you both love each other,” Nathan said and I sighed, “I know your patients is wearing thin- But just don’t give up on her.”