Sky Full of Stars

27

After the boys say their goodbyes and go to get ready for their flight, she heads home, calling Felicity on the way and bawling like a freaking baby the entire two hours that they spend on the phone. She feels a little better when she hangs up but it's not sufficient to put her mind at ease enough to go to sleep. She strips out of her dress and climbs under the covers, pulling them up to her chin and getting herself good and comfortable in the middle of her bed. She keeps her phone next to her head and basically just stares at it, waiting for it to light up with an incoming call.

Eventually, it does. Jamie's face pops up on the screen before it starts ringing and she scrambles to answer it as fast as she can, bypassing a greeting completely to instead ask how he's doing. "Better, I guess," he sighs. "We talked a little bit on the plane. And Pevs sent us all a group text to let us know he's doing okay."

"Well that's good at least, right? If he's able to text you guys-...."

"Yeah," Jamie agrees, but it's not convincing at all.

A heavy silence hangs between them for a few moments before she finally speaks again. "I'm sorry, Jame."

"What are you sorry for?" he asks, letting out a chuckle even though neither of them really feels like laughing right now. "You didn't do anything. Nobody did, it just....happened."

"No, I know. But I know you. I know you're going to take this really hard and put all this intense pressure on yourself now because you're the captain and you think it's your responsibility to carry the team on your shoulders. But Jamie, please don't do that. Don't lock it away. It's okay to be upset; it's okay to let the other guys know you're upset. You can still be the leader you need to be without shutting down. You just have to-....channel it somehow."

"And how do I do that?"

Calista frowns to herself, not really sure she even has an answer. She's definitely not in any position to be giving anyone advice but he still sounds upset and she can't leave it that way. "Lean on your teammates. You need them just as much as they need you. Tomorrow isn't just any other game now. You guys have every reason to go out there and lose and no one would blame you. But I've seen the way this team can battle, Jamie, the way you can. You guys can find a way to win."

"You've got a lot more faith in me than I do."

"You make it pretty easy for me," she says softly and Jamie makes a noncommittal noise but doesn't argue further, which is a good sign that he's taking what she said to heart. "So how was that pep talk then? Did I do okay?"

"Yeah, it was alright," he says, laughing a little. "I needed it but it honestly wasn't why I called. I just wanted to check in and-...are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she assures him. "Just thinking about you guys."

"Don't worry about us, Liss. We're big boys."

"Like that matters. I always worry about you."

"Well that goes both ways, you know."

"I know," she replies, smiling as she glances over at her alarm clock. "It's almost 12:30. You should try and get some rest."

"I don't think we'll be getting much rest tonight. I'm meeting a few of the guys down in Ray's room in a few minutes."

"Well at least try to," Calista sighs. "And give the boys my love."

"Uh huh."

"I love you, Jamie."

"I know," he says. "I love you too."

"Goodnight."

"Night, Liss."

She feels better after talking to him, but there's still no way she's going to be able to relax completely until she knows Tyler is okay. Jamie didn't mention if he was one of the ones who was going to be meeting him but she figures he probably is. While she's waiting, she decides to text some of the other guys just to check in on them too. Roussel insists he's fine now that he knows Pevs is doing okay and that he's trying to lighten the mood with the guys as much as possible. Dillon dodges the question completely, instead promising to keep an eye on Jamie for her. Eakin admits he's still a little rattled but doesn't want to talk about it. Val is as always a man of few or no words with English so he just responds with a few end parentheses which she's come to know is an equivalent of a smiley face. Chiasson takes almost an hour to respond and when he finally does, she finds out that he was so shaken up that he didn't even make the trip to St. Louis with the team, instead going straight to the hospital. She offers a listening ear, same as she did to the other guys, but since he's still at the hospital, she leaves him alone after that.

Her phone finally rings for the second time of the night and this time it's Tyler's name who pops up on the screen. Just in his greeting, she can tell that he sounds better now than he did when she saw him at the arena earlier. He tells her that he just got back to his room from Ray's where he met some of the other guys and just talked for a little while. His phone goes off every thirty seconds with new texts and he explains that he's been getting messages all night from his and Rich's old teammates in Boston and even some other guys from throughout the league, just checking in to see what happened and how Rich is doing.

Once he finally convinces her that he's okay, he switches the topic to less serious things and they end up talking about nothing in particular for a long time, but it's just somehow more settling to hear each other's voices anyway. The messages die down after awhile and she notices that the longer he goes without thinking about it, the more back to normal he is; he even cracks a few jokes. She doesn't want him to lose that mood improvement so she keeps him talking, making all the right noises at the appropriate times and broaching new subjects to prevent any lulls in the conversation. She's doing a pretty good job of it too until Tyler suddenly breaks off in the middle of his sentence to say, "Holy shit, it's after 4."

The clock on her nightstand says it's 4:17 and she has to be at work in less than five hours but she's not going to wimp out and get off the phone when she promised she'd be there if he needed her. "So?"

"You have work tomorrow. You need to get some sleep."

"So do you," she retorts, trying to stifle a quiet yawn with her hand.

"Don't think I can," he murmurs, and she can hear the weariness in his voice, the stress and emotional havoc of the day starting to seep back in.

"Just lie back and try." He moves around a bit to get more comfortable, the scratchy hotel sheets rustling as he does, and then he sighs heavily as he wedges the phone in between his head and his pillow, finally finding a good spot. "Close your eyes and take a couple of slow deep breaths. If you still can't go to sleep, then just keep talking. I'm not going anywhere."

Tyler doesn't say anything in way of a response but she can hear him doing like she said and within a matter of minutes, his breathing evens out and there's nothing but soft snores coming through the line. Calista smiles to herself as she puts her phone on speaker and sets it down on the pillow next to her before she pulls the covers up to her neck, finally feeling like she can get some sleep.

-

The phone call is obviously disconnected when she rolls over to turn off her alarm clock and even though she feels more tired than if she hadn't slept at all, she's glad that she stayed up. She hopes the boys got to at least sleep in a bit this morning. It's extremely hard to drag herself out of bed and across the hall to shower but she automatically feels a little better when she gets back to her bedroom and sees a text from Tyler that says thanks for last night along with a kissy face emoji.

How is everything today? she asks in return then proceeds getting ready so that she can head into work. He tells her that the mood among the guys is still very subdued but that they're trying to just focus on the game ahead and she just offers a listening ear again before she grabs her purse and locks up the apartment on her way out the door. He doesn't reply right away, probably having gone to eat breakfast with the boys before morning skate and facing the media, and the moment she walks into her office, Charlie and a few other coworkers drop by her desk to check in after all hearing about what happened at the game the night before because they know how close she is to some of the guys.

She's obviously distracted and overtired at work all day, even though Tyler and Jamie both keep texting her and seem to be doing okay. Charlie takes some sympathy on her and kicks her out of the office two hours early, telling her to go home and he'll just see her Thursday. Instead of going home like she should, Calista goes straight over to the studio where she just folds up on the sofa under Nick's arm for two hours while Felicity's teaching her class. She feels pretty much back to normal by the time she leaves to head home, good enough even to actually make something for dinner instead of ordering take out. She's just finishing cleaning up the kitchen when Tyler calls to ask if she'll go up to his place and feed Marshall, maybe pet him for a bit, which of course she will. As soon as she's done loading the dishwasher, she grabs a bottle of wine and her keys and phone to head upstairs, deciding she'll just watch the game there so she can hang with Marshall. It's nice to have the company, even if it happens to be a dog.

Tyler's spare key is in the end drawer in Jamie and Jordie's kitchen so she has to stop off on their floor first to go in and get it before heading up to Tyler's floor. Marshall pounces on her as soon as she gets into the apartment and locks the door back behind her, wagging his tail excitedly and snuffling her hand when she reaches out to pet him. She crouches down to scratch behind his ears and he lops over her feet so she can rub his belly. It takes a few minutes until he's willing to get up again so that she can go into the kitchen to refill his silver doggy bowl with food but instead of eating, he follows her right back into the living room. She spends a few extra minutes figuring out Tyler's system setup before actually finding the correct channel for the game and she settles down on the end of the sofa, patting her thigh to prompt Marshall to jump up onto it next to her.

The lack of sleep the night before coupled with a few glasses of wine make for a double strike against her plan to stay awake and watch the entire game. It's a struggle despite the fact that the score is ridiculously close the whole time and then it goes into overtime. She manages to keep her eyes open long enough to see Jamie get the OT game winning goal and she sends him a text saying that she knew he could do it and that she's so proud of him before she knocks the fuck out right there on Tyler's sofa instead of going back home to her own apartment.

-

The past thirty-six hours have been some of the most emotionally as well as physically exhausting of Tyler's life and, at nearly two in the morning, he wants nothing more than to just face plant into his bed and slip into unconsciousness for the next few days maybe. He unlocks the door quickly and shoves it open with his shoulder, dropping his bag as soon as he's fully inside and kicking off his shoes before locking up behind him and when he turns to head further into the apartment, he can't help breaking out into a stupid grin at the sight awaiting him. Calista is asleep curled up on the sofa under the thin ivory throw from the back of the chair, auburn hair splayed out across the dark cushion, her arms tucked into her chest, and a big brown fur ball lying at the end on top of her feet, snoring softly. Coming home to this is definitely something he could get used to. He's pretty sure he's never been happier to see Calista and he's going to get her upstairs into his bed so he can cuddle the fuck out of her but, first, a photo has to be taken because, come on, how could he not?

The lamp by her feet is on, casting just enough light over her and the massive pile of fur that they can be seen in the otherwise completely dark room and, after he snaps the picture, he takes a moment to marvel at how the dog hasn't so much as even cracked his eyes open since Tyler came in. Usually, he's ecstatic to see him no matter how late the hour is, but Marshall is apparently so content that he couldn't care less right now. Tyler shakes his head and chuckles to himself then posts the photo to instagram before he crouches down by her head and gently rubs his hand over her shoulder.

Calista startles at the contact, her eyes popping open immediately but when she sees Tyler there inches from her face, the only thing she feels is relief. "Hey," she croaks, voice thick with sleep, and she reaches out to rest her hand on his cheek. "You okay?"

"I am now," he tells her and then stifles a groan at how cheesy that was. "Come on, let's go to bed."

Half asleep and caring more about being back in his arms than the fact that she's heading to his bedroom, she takes the hand he offers her and gets up from the sofa, following him up the stairs and down the short hallway to his room, the now awake lab following on their heels. She crawls right into his bed and Marshall jumps up into the empty space next to her while Tyler carelessly strips out of his suit, leaving it on the floor in front of the closet as he walks over to join. "Marshall, you gotta move," he sighs, but the dog just picks his head up to look at him for a moment before dropping it back down on Calista's arm. She smiles sleepily and pats Marshall's side, telling him to move to the foot of the bed and he goes immediately, leaving Tyler to grumble to himself as he finally slips under the covers on the empty side. "Ridiculous," he huffs, pouting that his own dog listens to her more than him. "One night with you and I'm replaced."

She's still smiling as she reaches up to brush her fingers through his hair. "I'm glad you're back."

Tyler snakes his arms around her and pulls her into his chest, burying his face in the crook of her neck and kissing her shoulder. "I'm so glad you're here."

-

The sun is streaming in through the windows, right into Tyler's face and he throws his arm up over his eyes to block it out but the huge fur ball at his feet takes the movement to mean he's waking up so he lunges on top of him to start licking him all over the face and arm. Tyler groans and pushes him away but the dog is persistent, going right back in again. A quiet laugh from behind him grabs his attention and he glances over his shoulder to see Calista watching the two of them in amusement. She's sitting up, back leaned against the headboard and legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle, when he rolls over onto his side to face her. "Mm, morning," he grins. "I could get used to waking up to this."

She returns the smile but then her eyes go right back to the phone in her hand and she sighs, holding it up for him to see his own post on her screen. "Seriously, Ty? 'Caught baes sleepin'?"

He lets out a hoarse laugh as he rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands. "What, no good?"

"Nope," she replies, shaking her head. "You're embarrassing and not hip at all."

"Okay," he snorts. "But you just used the word 'hip' so any argument you make is invalid."

She rolls her eyes, mumbling a "shut up" as she reaches over to cover his mouth and he nips playfully at her hand until she smacks his bare chest, both of them laughing. "Seriously though, you could have at least not tagged me."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"You don't think you're just causing yourself extra trouble?" The photo's gotten almost a thousand comments since it was posted less than eight hours ago and most of them are less than nice. There's a lot of 'Are you kidding me???' and 'WHAT HE HAS A GIRLFRIEND' and even a few in the realm of 'This bitch better back off' and those are the milder ones. She already has three hundred new follower requests and all but five are from nosy strangers. The others are some of Tyler's friends that she hasn't met but who probably want to scope her out now that he decided to make the announcement to the world. She sighs and closes the app, deciding she'll deal with it later.

"I don't think it's any trouble at all," he says hesitantly, brows furrowed in confusion as he props himself up on his elbow to look at her straight on. "Why would it be?"

"It's just-....People aren't very-....I mean, I've seen plenty of mean comments on the other guys' photos that I'm in and I'm just their friend. If people know that you're dating me-...."

"I'm sorry," Tyler says immediately, frowning. "I should've asked before I posted-"

"No, it's not that. I just-...I guess it's not really that big of a deal for me. I've been hearing shit like that since, I don't know, forever? But especially since Jamie started playing in the NHL and got a big following. I'm sort of used to it so it's just you that's gonna be getting a lot of extra grief. I can deny random requests all day but you have like a shit ton of followers that are gonna be seeing everything you post and commenting on it."

He nods slowly and chews on his bottom lip, considering everything for a few moments. "Calista, I don't know if you know this about me," he starts seriously, but then he cracks a ridiculous smile and grabs her hand, tugging on her arm until she lays back down beside him so that he can wrap his arms around her tightly. "But I actually couldn't give a shit what people have to say," he finishes in a murmur against her ear.

Calista lets out a little laugh. "You say that now, but wait til you actually see some of the comments on that picture you posted last night."

"Hey," he says, gently squeezing her hip and she turns her head to look over her shoulder at him. "I'll block every single one of 'em."

"That's not necessary," she smiles. "Besides, I don't care what they say, I'm used to it. This is your account and your decision."

"My decision is I want the whole fucking world to know."

"Are you sure?" Instead of responding verbally, he ducks his head down to briefly press his lips to hers and when he pulls back to look at her, she chuckles. "That's good, because they pretty much already do now. I've got about three hundred follower requests at the moment. Including a few of your friends from home and your sister."

"Shit, my sister," he groans, sitting up abruptly to reach over and grab his phone off the nightstand. He turns some music on before he does anything else and Calista rolls her eyes at his choice of Pandora station when the first song begins playing. Tyler grumbles to himself as he goes through the flood of text messages he received while they were sleeping, from everyone from his sister and mom to his teammates to his other friends. Most of what he receives from his teammates is along the lines of what the fuck and how in the hell did you manage that, segs??? or, in Fiddler's case, don't be stupid with her or i will fuck you up. Roussel sent a photo of himself flipping off the camera and no caption to go with it. Cody just said we're gonna fight and Dillon didn't say anything. His sister was the one who texted him first so hers is the last one he comes to as he scrolls through and he shakes his head after he reads it, looking back over at Calista. "Well, looks like yours isn't the only insistent sibling. Candace demands a skype meet ASAP."

"I don't know who's scarier, her or Casey."

Tyler snorts. "You kidding? My five foot six little sister versus your bigger-than-me older brother with his giant ass beard?"

"He's not bigger than you. Taller yes, but not bigger."

"How tall is he?"

"Six foot six." He mutters something under his breath, letting his head fall back against the pillow and she suppresses a giggle. "He's a total teddy bear though. Like Jamie."

"What the fuck, Jamie is not a teddy bear. He's fucking scary."

"No, he's not!"

"Calista, trust me on this. He's got that kinda quiet voice and he looks all innocent with his big Bambi eyes but he could also kill someone very easily. The first time I had to face him on the ice, not gonna lie, I was pretty nervous."

"Yeah, but that's when he's in his hockey zone. It's different."

"It's not different. He's got that same intensity when it comes to you."

Unable to stop herself, she cracks a little smile at that because she knows it's true. Jamie is super protective, and he's not the only one. "Casey does too," she admits quietly. "But I'm sure it'll all be fine. As long as you don't hurt me, he'll like you."

"You sure that's all it takes?"

"Positive."

"Then I should have this one in the bag."

"Exactly," she confirms and he wraps her up in his arms, peppering kisses across the side of her face, along her jaw and down her neck. "So lying in bed listening to Bieber is a thing that we're gonna do all day?"

"Mmm, that'd be a pretty sweet day," he says, smiling against her shoulder. "But some of the guys were gonna go down to the hospital and see Pevs."

"What time?"

Tyler picks up his phone again to check the screen before he groans and tosses it back down onto the comforter. "Like an hour."

"Okay," Calista chuckles, wriggling free from his hold and she sits up on the edge of the bed, pushing a hand through her mess of auburn waves. "You need to get up then and I need to go home and try to do some work since Charlie banned me from the office today."

"You're not gonna go with me?"

"Do you want me to go with you?" she asks, looking back at him over her shoulder and he sucks his bottom lip between his teeth, nodding wordlessly. She smiles a little, reaching over to press her hand to his stubble covered cheek. "Then of course I will. But you still have to get up and I still have to go home."

"I'll meet you down there," he tells her as she tosses the comforter back off her legs and stands up to stretch. She expresses her agreement before making her way back downstairs and she has to stop Marshall at the door from following her. She's quick to jump into action once she gets back down to her apartment, taking a quick shower and drying her hair before throwing it back into a low, messy bun and going across the hall to her bedroom to get dressed.

She emerges from the hallway less than ten minutes later, carefully sticking little black studs into her earlobes as she goes to answer the knock at the door and when she swings it open, Tyler's standing there, all showered and dressed in a pair of jeans and a white tee shirt and looking kind of nervous. "You ready?"

"No," he answers honestly, sighing, and she just squeezes his arm sympathetically before going back to grab her purse and phone from the kitchen counter. He's quiet in the elevator on the way down to the parking garage and in the car on the drive to the hospital but she doesn't push, instead just keeping her fingers tangled with his and soothingly rubbing her thumb back and forth over his.

Thanks to a text from Jamie, they already know Rich's room number so they're able to head straight up to the correct floor when they arrive. They step off the elevator and walk down the hall past the nurses' station but Calista stops, tugging gently on his hand just before they reach the room. "You go on. This is really a team thing and the guys are waiting for you. I'll just be in there," she says, nodding toward the waiting room they just passed. "Come get me when you're done."

He pecks her cheek before he turns to head the rest of the way to the room by himself and Calista ducks into the waiting room to sit down, pulling her phone out of her bag to respond to some texts that she received while they were sleeping and is just now getting around to. Felicity of course had a lot to say about Tyler announcing their relationship to the world, over about ten text messages, but Calista just tries to downplay it as much as possible, not that that even remotely convinces the blonde for a second. She's got texts from some of the guys too. Daley told her to let him know if Tyler does anything stupid so he can knock him around a little. Roussel sent a short, straight to the point How could you?!?? and Eakin's is just a string of emojis compiled of sad, crying faces and broken hearts. There's also a rather annoying message from her brother that makes her roll her eyes. You're already staying over at his place?

SLEEPING, and it was accidental. Stop being a creeper

Fuck you, he followed me first
, Casey responds immediately, and she's not sure if she believes it but she doesn't say that to him. Instead, she just tells him not to be so dramatic and then moves on to instagram to wade through the flood of new requests. There are even more now and she deletes most of them, especially the ones that have Seguin or Benn or Stars in their username and bio. Mixed in with all those are a few of Tyler's Toronto friends and she reluctantly accepts those, along with both his sisters.

After she's sorted through them all, she ends up going back to look at the picture again. She mentally debates with herself, thumb hovering over the screen, but eventually she gives in and starts reading the comments that are upwards of fifteen hundred now. Most of them are rude or just flat out mean like she expected, and she's surprised to find even a few that are nice and/or supportive. She wonders what's going to happen when he inevitably posts something about them that's more straightforward; this post could easily be written off as a joke if they wanted, especially considering the close friendships she already has with other guys on the team. But if he actually comes out and says something outright, she can only imagine how much worse the feedback is going to be.

Movement to her left catches her attention and she snaps out of those thoughts for the moment as she looks up to see Dillon standing in the doorway of the waiting room. "Oh, hey, Dills."

"I didn't know you were here."

"Just, ya know," she shrugs, dropping her phone back into her purse. "Moral support."

"Right," he nods, but he seems a little bit off, not the usual smiling, boisterous version of himself that she's come to know and love.

"You okay?"

He doesn't answer the question but he looks at her with an unreadable expression and she's legitimately starting to worry. "So you and Tyler then," he finally says, and there's no emotion in his voice whatsoever, good or bad.

Calista tries to smile but the way he's acting is really throwing her off and she doesn't know where his head is at the moment so it probably comes across as a little bit forced. "Yeah, well," she says, biting down on her bottom lip as she lets the sentence die without finishing it.

"I didn't know you'd actually consider one of Jamie's teammates. If I had-...." He stops himself and looks down at the floor, shaking his head as a smile finally breaks across his face. "Guess I missed my chance, eh?"

She frowns at him because she can tell it's not a happy smile. It's the smile he gets on the ice when he's just blocked a shot but he doesn't want the opposing team to know he's in pain. "Brenden, I didn't-" Know is what she was going to say, but truthfully, it should be more like believe. Jamie had told her but she just hadn't thought that was even a legitimate possibility.

"But if I'd asked?"

He looks almost hopeful as he waits for her to speak and her chest is starting to hurt because she hates this. She hates this so much. He's a really good friend and if she loses him over this, she's never going to forgive herself. She loves him with all her heart, they both know it, and if he'd just said something before, she probably wouldn't have even hesitated in her answer.

"I would've said yes."

Dillon sighs heavily and nods, looking at the floor again. "My fault, I guess. I never would've thought that in a million years. "

"I'm sorry," she mumbles, and he lets out a chuckle even though it's not funny.

"Don't be sorry, Calista. It was my fault," he shrugs, slipping one hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulling out his car keys. "Segs is a good guy though. You two'll be good together."

"Brenden-"

"I gotta run," he interrupts, cutting her off, and he won't even look at her at all now. "I'll see you later, okay?"

He doesn't give her a chance to respond before he turns and disappears down the hallway, leaving her just sitting there wondering what the fuck just happened and what she's supposed to do with it all. She leans back in her chair with a sigh, staring straight ahead at the television across the room from her but not really seeing what's on it. She lets her vision go fuzzy and unfocused as she replays the conversation in her mind and she doesn't even hear the herd of men coming down the hall until someone calls her name and snaps her out of her daze. Her head snaps toward the door where Tyler's leaning halfway into the room with a smile on his face. "Ready to go?"

"Y-yeah," she stutters, looking around for her phone before remembering she'd dropped it back into her purse already. She stands up shakily and slips her bag onto her shoulder as she walks over to him but he meets her halfway, grabbing her by the shoulders and ducking his head down to look her in the face, concerned.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Fine," she nods, and even she knows how unconvincing she sounds. She licks her lips and looks up directly into his eyes, giving him a small smile. "Really, I'm fine. Just-....it's been a wild few days."

He chuckles a little and pulls her into a quick hug, draping his arm around her shoulders to hold her to his chest. "You're tellin' me," he agrees, and he squeezes her tightly before letting her go. "So, you up for going to lunch with the boys?"
♠ ♠ ♠
Calista's first and second outfits.

Soooooo....what do we think??

:)