Counting Stars

You’d know if you came to visit me more often. Avery snickers as she shoots the text off, knowing it’s going to make her best friend angry. Having arrived to the United Center with Jon though, she was hours early for the game and she’ll take any source of entertainment she can get. It’s the first game she’s hitting all year, and she knows that, like Dayna, some of the wives will be ecstatic to see her back. She also knows that others were happy to see her go, adored the girls Jon had dated in the time between. Right now, she’ll take all forms of support, even hilarious words of defense.

Derek Stepan replies quickly, as he usually does when he’s not in his own game day schedule. THAT IS NOT FAIR MY SCHEDULE DOES NOT ALLOW FOR THIS. And then, in quick succession, we play there mar 8.

Can Steph come out with you?

Think thats mid roadie but she can probably meet us. Step had been her best friend since their freshman year at Shattuck, a friendship that had continued all through their college years at University of Wisconsin and still thrived to this day. Stephanie, his current wife, had been Avery’s college roommate. Step’s announcement that he was dating her roommate had been the only time in over ten years of friendship it had ever been rocky. Update, steph says shes in.

YAY!!!!!! Avery responds, adding every excitable emoji she can find to the end of it.

“Hey,” Dayna’s voice pulls Avery out of her phone as she spins around looking for the source of it.

“Hey,” Avery slips her phone back into her purse. “You just get here?”

Dayna nods. “Carter’s with Kell now. Jon texted me earlier to tell me you were hiding out here; I figured I’d come find you, make sure you weren’t talking yourself out of it.”

Avery laughs. “I’m good. I mean, as good as I’m going to be.”

Dayna snickers. “Relax, babe. You know, at the very least, you’ve got me, Kelly-Rae, and Abby,” She pauses. “And half of them are gone now,”

“I know,” Avery tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. “And, like, most of them don’t care. It just—it just sucks listening to,”

Dayna links her arm through Avery’s. “Yeah, I know. Come on, let’s go get it over with, I promise it won’t be as bad as you think,”

It’s one of the (many) reasons Avery loves Dayna, the older woman has always had the ability to calm Avery down and loosen her nerves. It’s all she needs right now, feeling like she’s meeting these women for the first time all over again.

The walk to the family suite is a familiar one, though new photos do frame the walls. Avery smiles at the photos from the 2013 cup run, the one she hadn’t been around for, and reaches out to run her fingers over one from 2010 when Dayna yanks her into the suite. “What the hell?”

“We only have so much time,” Dayna hastens to say. “Everyone else will be in after warm ups, and they’re about to start.”

“Everyone--?”Avery starts to repeat, only to look ahead and see Kelly-Rae Keith and Abby Sharp with their children as the only other occupants of the room. She grins widely, squealing even, as the two blondes begin to laugh and open their arms. “I’ve missed you guys!”

“I cried when Patrick told me you were back,” Abby confesses. “Maddy thought someone died because that’s the only other time she’s ever seen a grown-up cry.” Avery cracks up at her words and Abby isn’t far behind. For years, these three women were some of her closest friends and confidants. It had been hard to leave that all behind after the break up. “Anyway, we just got super excited and—“

“WHAT IS ON YOUR FINGER?” Kelly-Rae doesn’t even wait for a response, opting to just grab Avery’s left hand and pull it to the center of the group. “Holy shit, that’s gorgeous!”

“When did he give that to you?” Dayna cries.

“On Saturday,” Avery bites her lip. “At the house he bought us.”

“Shut up.” Abby smacks her hand against the wall in her excitement and quickly shakes it out. “Jonathan Toews bought you a house,”

“It’s perfect! Literally, everything I could ever dream in a house. I can’t wait to decorate!”

“Should hook her up with Amanda,” Kelly mentions casually, to the nods of Dayna and Abby. Avery blinks confusedly. “She’ll help you out,”

“Umm,” Avery frowns. “I’m not sure if the time apart has addled all of your brains or this is like delayed on-set mommy brain but I’m pretty sure she still hates me,”

“No no no,” Dayna laughs. “Kaner’s girlfriend Amanda, not Bickell’s wife.”

Avery breathes out a sigh of relief. “You had me worried for a second there. I’ll take your word on Kaner’s girl,”

“Honestly, she’s great,” Abby smiles. “When we were dreaming about him one day finding the perfect girl for us to befriend, we couldn’t have even come close to what he managed to find. Way too good for him, you’re going to love her,”

“When do you guys move into the new house?” With the skills only a mother can manage, Kelly-Rae manages to finish her sentence while maintaining eye contact and fixing a juice box for Colton.

“This week,” Avery bites her lip to keep the excitement in, so glad she’s sharing this with them all. “Four days off, we figured we’d never get an opportunity like this,”

“Well I volunteer my husband to help move,” Dayna smiles. “But I’ll relegate myself to mostly supervision,” She puts a hand over her stomach. “As there’s another little one on the way,”

Avery is instantly excited, squealing her congratulations and throwing her arms around the brunette. It isn’t until after she pulls away that she realizes it’s news to all of them. Kelly-Rae and Abby are predictably as excited, and it isn’t until they start talking about which Hawks baby this Seabrook can marry that Avery realizes it’s partially a trap.

“You and Jon’ll be right behind them, right?” Kelly-Rae is terrible at pretending to be innocent; if this was a planned conversation, the three of them should have let Abby step up.

“You are, after all, already married,” Dayna adds, with a sly grin. Kelly-Rae and Abby don’t even look surprised; Avery isn’t shocked to realize that they already know. If Dayna wasn’t the one to tell them, she knows Jon told a few of their closest friends that would keep the secret.

“You can start popping out kids anytime,” Abby chimes in.

“We haven’t even—“She’s getting into dangerous territory, admitting to this crowd her current lack of sex life. Not because they’ll tell the world about it. Because they’ll try to fix it.

“Oh ho,” Abby pounces. “Go on, dear, tell me all about it,”

“It’s not—“Avery cuts off with a frustrated noise, unsure how to describe herself. “It’s like, we’re going around it? We sleep together literally but not—and we still haven’t talked about why we broke up and things are really good right now and I don’t think either of us wants to risk…making them not good.”

“So you’re both just going to stop having sex?” Dayna frowns. “Forever. Because you don’t want to talk.”

“When you put it like that, it just sounds stupid.” Avery tells her.

“Just jump him,” Kelly-Rae suggests. “Then talk after,”

Abby nods her agreement. “Use it as a kickstarter!”

“I need new friends,” Avery pouts.

“Tough,” Abby throws her arm around Avery. “You’re stuck with us again,”

----------------------------------------------------------------------

“I’m just saying, Avery, these are things you should consider—“Her mother’s voice carries loudly through the phone as Avery waits patiently for Jon to finish up so they can go home.

“I understand, Mom,” Avery cuts her off mid-sentence as a familiar head of curly blond hair comes into view. “I’m hanging up now; call you later,” And before Trina can get a word in otherwise, Avery has ended the call, slid the phone in her pocket, and slipped over to Kaner.

It’s not the most graceful leap she’s ever made, jumping onto his back, but it’s certainly not the least either.

“Oof,” The words are dry and Kaner barely even flinches as she throws herself up, but he still makes a big show of stumbling once he knows she’s settled on.

“Relax, you big baby,” Avery loops her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. He’s got a pretty brunette standing with him, one she vaguely recognizes as having seen with him at various events.

“I’m an old man now, Ave,” Kaner tells her, hiking her up further on his back.

“More like middle-aged dad,”

“Meh, close enough,” Avery laughs as Kaner snickers and his poor girlfriend tries to hide giggles behind her hand. “You meet Amanda yet?”

Amanda shakes her head in response. “No, we haven’t yet.”

“I was told there was a saint who managed to put up with you for two years, but I wasn’t really sure I believed it,” Avery waves as Amanda laughs. “Hi, I’m Avery,”

Kaner grabs her hand on its way back to his sternum as Amanda returns the pleasantries. “Huh,”

Avery frowns, exchanging a look with Amanda. “Huh, what?”

“Nothing,”

“Pat,” Amanda says, exasperatedly.

“Please?” Avery pleads, sliding off his back and walking around so she’s in view of the two of them.

“It’s—that’s—I’m not sure if I should even be telling you this,” He continues anyway; she knows Kaner feels a certain sense of obligation to her as well. For a while, it had been the three of them, her, Jon, and Kaner; best friends against the world. In some ways, it had been great. In others, it put him in awkward spots, just like this. “But he bought this back then,”

Avery frowns. “He what?”

Kaner nods, eyes flicking over toward the locker room entrance. He only continues once he deems it apparently safe. “He got it in New York back when we had that big stretch of East Coast games? Had it designed by somebody there and then made. Dragged me down with him to do it.” Avery’s not sure exactly what look is on her face, but it must be good because Kaner continues. “You didn’t know any of that?”

She shakes her head. “No,” He frowns again. “No, I didn’t.” She pauses. “Thanks.”

Kaner frowns. “Don’t tell him I told you that,”

“No, no, I won’t,” She hastens to assure him, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the glare bestowed upon her by one of the girlfriends she doesn’t even know.

Kaner comments, unsurprisingly, as Amanda frowns, managing to convey both confusion and sympathy. “Wow,”

This time, Avery actually does roll her eyes. “Ask me how many fucks I give about what Amanda Bickell and everyone else she’s managed to turn think about a situation they know ZERO about,” She forms her fingers into the number and holds it in front of Kaner’s face.

He laughs. “Fuck a fake friend, where you real friends at?”

“Stop,” Amanda begs. “You’re not drunk enough for this. I’m not drunk enough for this,”

“Hey!” Kaner protests, but Avery ignores him in favor laughing with Amanda.

A pair of arms slide around Avery’s waist. “What’s so funny?” Jon’s voice is absolute music to her ears after waiting for him all game.

“Pat’s rap career,” Amanda snickers.

“Oh well that,” Jon teases and quickly joins the laughter. He pokes Avery lightly in the side, upon calming down. “Let’s go home.”

She nods quickly. “Ok,” He’s soft and warm, post-shower and she just wants to go home and cuddle up in bed with him and decidedly not sleep with him for the purpose of keeping the peace, despite what her friends have to say about the subject.