Sky Full of Stars

18

The guys are on a three game road trip and just had a brutal loss to the Islanders last night. She's pretty sure that translates to them taking the day to practice and work out super hard and of course sulk in between all that. Which means she's pretty confident that she's not going to hear from any of them and also that she probably shouldn't try initiating anything either. She's getting ready to go in to the office for the day when her phone rings. Expecting it to be Felicity or maybe Miranda, she's thrown off when she sees that it's Jamie, and a FaceTime call at that. Automatically she assumes that something must be wrong.

She slides her finger across the screen to answer it and the call connects immediately so that she hears him before she sees him. "J? Everything alright?"

The video kicks in and now she can see him smiling at her obvious worry. He's sitting by the window in his and Tyler's hotel room, still gross and sweaty from a workout, with his victory green cap on backwards and that stupid gray tee shirt with the neck ripped out. "Yeah, fine. Listen, I got some news for you."

Those words make her cringe because she's expecting it to be something terrible, but he's still smiling so now she's just confused. "Okay....What is it?"

"Guess who's gonna be on Team Canada in Sochi next month," he says casually and she becomes so still that he isn't sure if it's actually her or if maybe the reception is bad and the video is frozen. "Liss, did you hear me?"

"No, yeah, I heard you," she replies, still stunned, but she soon breaks out into a wide grin as her eyes begin to tear up. After being slighted last summer for the Olympic orientation camp, Jamie is actually going to get a chance to represent his country on the world's largest stage. "That's amazing, Jamie! Congratulations!"

"Thanks," he says. "But if it's so great, then why do you look upset?"

"I'm not upset," she squeaks out but of course that's all it takes to confirm that she is in fact starting to get emotional. "I'm not, I'm just...I'm so proud of you."

He laughs this time. "Don't cry, Liss."

"I can't help it!" she protests, sniffling. "First, you get named Captain and now you're going to the Olympics? Stop being so fucking impressive and maybe I'll stop crying."

"I'll try," he grins.

"I'm so happy for you, Jamie. Really."

"Thanks, Liss. That means a lot." Calista nods silently but his sudden seriousness makes her eyes well up with tears for the second time in a short few minutes and of course he notices. "You're crying again," he says softly.

"She's crying?" another voice asks, amused, and Jamie looks up from his screen to tell the person to shut up. Within a few seconds, the phone is no longer in Jamie's hand and it's now Tyler's face that fills her screen. "Calista, c'mon, it's a happy thing!"

"I am happy, you jerk. Don't laugh at me."

Tyler grins but then bites his lip to try and hide it. "No laughing here."

"Give me that," Jamie snaps, wrestling the phone back from him then punching him in the arm for good measure before he returns to his chair by the window. "Sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," she says, smiling in reassurance. "This is so great. Have you called your parents yet?"

"I'm just about to."

"Is this like a secret thing? Or can I brag to everyone I know that my best friend's going to the Olympics?"

Jamie laughs. "No, it's not a secret. But no bragging."

"Uhh, too bad, I'm gonna do it anyway. How could I not? My best friend is going to the Olympics!"

"But what if I get there and completely bomb and you told everyone we know so they all see it?"

She grins. "Jamie, you're not gonna bomb. You're gonna be amazing."

"Well, I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I'm not as sure as you are."

"C'mon, Chubbs. You're gonna be great!" Tyler butts in from wherever he is in their hotel room.

"Hope you're right," Jamie sighs.

"We are. Now get that grumpy look off your face and go call your family."

Jamie laughs and they say their goodbyes before they hang up. And because she couldn't actually bring herself to say the words, she opens her message thread to him and types out a quick follow up text.

I'm so proud of you, Jamie. She would be too.

-

Without the boys in town, Calista keeps herself busy with spending long hours in the office and the rest of her time with the Parker-Foster clan at the studio taking classes. She keeps a check on the boys' games but it's nothing but losses and she knows it has to be taking a toll on Jamie so she texts him frequently, making sure to keep it as light as she can. Tyler has texted her a few times since they've been away, never for any particular reason. She wonders what exactly he's trying to do, but there was so much drama between them before that that's the last thing she wants now, so she doesn't call him on it. Instead, she replies and then finds it easier to the next time.

They talk about lots of things. It always starts with some stupid observation about Jamie or something he caught on tv when he was supposed to be taking his pregame nap or some random question like what her favorite Christmas movie is. But the longer she spends talking to him, the more she finds herself enjoying it. Quite unlike the younger version of himself, he's easy to talk to and not at all intimidating, especially when he's not sitting right in front of her. He's unabashedly flirty too, overdosing on the winking emojis more than once, but she just ignores it the best she can and thanks her lucky stars that he can't see her blush.

The first thing her intern Miranda asks her when Calista takes her to lunch on Thursday is if things are okay between her and Tyler. "Not that it's any of my business," she adds, after realizing just how presumptuous it was of her to just blurt out something like that to Calista, who is her internship supervisor a.k.a. boss a.k.a. the person who could fire her or give her a bad reference if she wanted to. "Sorry."

"You're fine," Calista chuckles. "Things are okay now. Just some old stuff that needed to be dealt with, but we're good now I think."

"That's good," Miranda nods. "'Cause I kinda got the feeling that he's into you."

She nearly chokes on her water, sending her into a coughing fit at the table and causing everyone else in the little italian restaurant to turn and look at them. "I'm sorry, but what the fuck?"

"I mean, obviously I don't know really because I don't know him and Jamie like you do. But when I did the interview with them, Tyler just kept on bringing you up in the conversation. Like, literally every question I asked, he would relate you into his answer somehow. I think Jamie even noticed a little bit because he kept rolling his eyes at him."

"I wasn't in any of your notes."

"No, because I didn't think you'd want all the stuff about you in there. I took out all the mentions of you in my notes, but I recorded the interview too if you wanna hear it. He talked about you practically the whole time. It was kinda ridiculous actually," Miranda laughs.

"Um no, that's okay. I believe you."

"Plus, when he came to the office last week, didn't you wonder why he was there? He told me he was just dropping by to see you, but why else would he just drop by to see you if he didn't like you? Honestly, by the look on his face, it was surprising he didn't have an armful of flowers or something over the top like that."

"Okay, you can stop that now," she laughs, but on the inside, she's panicking. Because of course she knows better than to think for a second that Tyler Seguin could actually like her. Even if he isn't the same asshole he was in Boston, she doubts his taste in women has changed that drastically and the last time she checked, she was pretty much on the opposite end of the spectrum from the kind of girls he liked. She's not his type at all.

Miranda must sense that she's hit a nerve because she backs off immediately and changes the subject to something completely unrelated by asking if Calista's by any chance ever watched One Tree Hill. Of course Calista is thankful for a topic that 1.) doesn't at all relate to Tyler, and 2.) she could talk about for literally hours. After lunch, the two girls return to the office and Miranda follows Calista into her office, taking a seat in the chair across from her desk while they finish up their conversation about Brooke Davis's character development through the seasons.

"Alright, well we need to get back to work, I guess. You have the files you need to do the article?"

"Yep," Miranda replies with a nod. "I'm gonna run get some coffee first. Want me to bring you some back?"

"Sure, that'd be great."

The blonde gets up from her chair and goes down the hall to the break room to get coffee for them while Calista goes through her emails and responds to a few. Miranda strolls back into her office a few minutes later with a mug in each hand and she carefully sets one down on Calista's desk before returning to her seat and taking a sip from the other. Calista thanks her as she finishes typing up the email she's working on and once she hits send, she drinks from her own.

"Oh, I saw Mr. Lennox in the hall. He told me to ask you to stop by his office sometime after three."

"Did he say what it was about?"

"Nope."

"Alright," Calista nods. "Thanks."

At first, she assumes that he probably just wants to talk to her about a new project or maybe the website but the longer she thinks about it, the more paranoid she becomes. Why wouldn't he just stop in at her office if it were something that simple? He wouldn't call her into his office unless it were something more important. She spends the rest of the afternoon dwelling on it, barely even noticing when Miranda leaves she's so distracted, and by the time three o'clock comes around, her hands are shaking with how nervous she is.

The lunch conversation about Tyler is the furthest thing from her mind when she finally rises from her desk at 3:02, turning off her computer monitor and pushing her chair under her desk just to waste time before she slowly makes her way out of her office and down the hall to the big corner office of Mr. Lennox. His secretary, a middle aged woman with purple-framed glasses and a warm smile, looks up when she approaches and tells her to go on in, that Mr. Lennox is expecting her, which just gives her one last jab of paranoia. She knocks twice before opening the door and when she steps inside, Mr. Lennox is sitting behind his desk with his hands folded on top of it, looking at her expectantly.

"Have a seat, Calista."

He doesn't sound happy about whatever this is and she's getting more freaked out by the second. She sits down in the chair directly across from him, crossing one leg over the other and placing her hands in her lap as she sits up straight to brace herself for whatever he's going to say next. He doesn't speak again right away, instead letting out a heavy sigh and running a hand over his clean shaven jaw.

"It's come to our attention that one of our ice girls, Megan Pearce, was at one point involved in a relationship with Jordie Benn."

She blinks, waiting for him to continue, but when he doesn't, she slowly nods her head. "Yes, sir. But not anymore."

"Miss Pearce decided to come to practice a few weeks ago and....share some information about herself and Jordie's private life and you know how gossip goes. It eventually made its way up to her trainers and coaches from the other girls and the organization was forced to dismiss her from the team."

Calista expected that would eventually happen, but still, it has nothing to do with her. Unless.....

"The problem we face now is, when Miss Pearce was given her meeting, she made some accusations. She claims that you were also involved in an inappropriate sexual relationship with Jordie. When a situation like that involves one of my employees, I have to ask if it's true."

Immediately she goes pale as all the blood drains from her face and her chest seizes up and her hands start to shake. Her heart is pounding so loud in her ears that she can't even think. Her lungs feel like they're on fire because she can't find the will to suck in any air. Mr. Lennox is staring at her, patiently waiting for her to answer him, but she can't seem to even focus her eyes, especially not now with the tears that have sprung up out of nowhere. "N-not anymore," she chokes out pathetically. "Not this season."

He nods his head like it's the answer he was expecting and slowly pushes his chair back from his desk to stand. "Well, I know you know that that's against the organization's rules and we can't make exceptions for you, even though your situation is outside the normal circumstances. I'm sorry, but we're going to have to let you go."

She knows the words are coming but it's still a slap in the face to hear them from his lips out loud. Suddenly, the rest of the office seems very quiet outside of this room and she wonders if they're all pressing their ears against the door to hear her lose her job. The job she's worked so hard for years to get. The job that's been her absolute dream. The job that let her work with Jamie and Jordie, her best friends in the world. The job that's no longer hers.

"Please pack up your office," he says, but when he speaks again after she's nodded dumbly and risen shakily to her feet, his voice is much softer. "Calista, I really am very sorry about this."

"I'm sorry too," she replies as strongly as she can but it doesn't matter because Mr. Lennox can see the tears pooling in her eyes and her hands shaking at her sides and he can hear the crack in her voice.

She quickly makes her way out of his office and back down the hall to hers, thankful that Miranda has already gone for the day and isn't at her desk to see and question her in her current state. She pushes the door shut behind her, locking herself in the safety of her office, and leans back against the wall before slowly sliding down to sit on the floor as the tears finally begin to fall.
♠ ♠ ♠
Calista's outfit for the second part of the chapter.

So??? What's everyone got to say about this one??? Can't wait to hear it!