Seven Year Ache

Riley had used her spare key to get into the condo Dave was living in when she arrive in Kelowna long enough to drop off her bags and note that the place barely looked lived in. He had moved back to Kelowna a few years prior, after he retired and no longer needed to be in Vancouver for work, and Riley and Shea had helped him move all of his things into a little condo downtown one summer. She spent ten minutes looking around, and it became increasingly clear that he hadn’t been living here for some time, Riley had to guess he had been in the hospital weeks before he told her. She was furious.

She was furious as she took a cab to the hospital, furious as she waited for reception to find his doctor and furious as he pulled her into a stuffy office and told her that her father had been sick for almost a year, and that for the past while he had been in kidney failure. So bad so, that now there was nothing they could do, her anger went through the roof when he told her that Dave had refused dialysis or a transplant weeks ago.

Riley was lead through the hospital and to his room, where she stood outside for a few minutes, unsure of what to do or say. She was so furious with him and she hated that. She didn’t understand why he didn’t call her sooner, or at the very least when things started going bad, not leaving it until the very last minute and even then the only reason she found out was because his doctor made a judgement call to call her and tell her he was dying. She also really didn’t understand why he was refusing treatment completely.

Finally she took in a deep breath and walked into the hospital room, facing him. He was sitting up in bed, reading the paper and she smiled, at least he could still do that. He looked up over the tops of his glasses at her and sighed, “I told them not to call you.”

“I’m glad they did. How could you not tell me?” She asked, walking further into the room.

As she sat down on a chair beside his bed he mumbled, “Please by all means make yourself comfortable.”

“Why didn’t you call me?” She ignored his not so subtle hint that he didn’t want her there.

“Because I knew you’d get on a plane and I didn’t want that.” He told her, and when Riley pulled the newspaper out of his hands and folded it up, laying it on the chair beside her he sighed and said to her, “You were fixing things with Shea. That’s where you should be; in Nashville with Shea.”

“I’m exactly where I need to be.” She told him firmly, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked around the room. It was all so clean and white, there was a plethora of machines next to his bed and she followed several of them up to wherever they disappeared into his body.

“No you’re not. You shouldn’t have come here.” He told her gruffly, tossing his glasses onto the table by his bed.

Riley looked up at him and told him, “You’re my dad!”

“Exactly. So go home kid. I’m fine.” He told her, looking away from her as she looked at him incredulously.

“Why are you so hell bent on being alone? You’re too god damn stubborn for your own good sometimes, you know?” Riley asked him, shooting him a look as he narrowed his eyes at her words.

Finally, after a long moment of silence, Dave turned to her with soft eyes and said, “I don’t want you to watch this.”

“Watch what? You die? Because tough luck, I’m not going anywhere old man. You’re stuck with me until the end.” Riley informed him with a small smile, and she was so grateful when his lips turned up into a smile of his own. So grateful in fact that her eyes welled up with tears and they spilled over her cheeks, and Dave’s smile turned into a frown. He reached out and grasped her hand and Riley told him, her voice shaky, “You should have told me.”

“I’m not important enough for you to put your entire life on hold for Riley.” Dave told her, and when her eyes snapped up to look at him he shook his head and said, before she could respond, “Don’t argue with me. The most important thing in your life right now isn’t in this crappy hospital bed in Kelowna, its Nashville getting ready to beat the Devils.”

“I wouldn’t miss this for the Stanley Cup finals, just so you know.” Riley informed him, and when he sighed she warned, “Don’t argue with me Dave.”

He let out a small laugh and then groaned in pain, which instantly made her stand up and go over to him. He waved her away with his hand and told her, “I’m fine.”

She narrowed her eyes at him but sat down in her chair again, before she mused out loud, “Stubborn ass.”

He laughed, and again groaned in pain, before he told her, “Stop making me laugh.”

Riley smiled gently at him, pulled a book out of her bag and slipped her feet out of her shoes, lifting her legs up to rest her feet on the edge of his bed. Dave rolled his eyes but patted the tops of her feet gently before Riley handed him his newspaper back. That’s how they sat, for nearly three hours, in complete silence reading. Every so often Riley would glance at him, noticing how different her father looked; more tired, sicker, and much older. Once Dave would notice her look back down at her book he would glance in her direction for a second or two, noting the way she looked happier than he imagined her to all those times they talked on the phone. Whatever it was he attributed it to Shea, and whatever they were doing to fix things.

As it approached five Dave asked Riley to get the laptop from the table on the other side of him, she did so in confusion and set it up on the table over his bed. She watched as he plunked away on it and pulled up Game Centre, turning on the Predators vs Devils game just in time to catch the last bit of warmups. Riley smiled and scooted her chair closer so that they could watch it together, and she leaned against his side as they watched what was left of warmups.

As they zoomed in on Shea, mid conversation with Pekka by the net Dave told Riley, “Don’t tell him this but I would have let him ask you to marry him ten years ago if he had asked.”

With an amused look on her face and a cocked brow Riley asked him, “You would have? Really?”

Dave nodded in confirmation and then told her, “But then of course I would have made sure you didn’t get married for at least five years after that.”

Riley let out a laugh and told him, “Of course.”

“You picked a good one Ry.” He told her, reaching out to pat her hand. Riley smiled and as the players began to disappear down the tunnel for the locker room to get ready for the start of the game. Dave turned to look at her and he told her, “I’m really proud of you.”

She rolled her eyes, “Of what? That I moved to another country and haven’t really done anything with my life?”

Dave shot her an unimpressed look and informed her, “You’ve done a lot with your life Riley. But what I’m proud of is the woman you’ve become. When your mom left I was terrified, I didn’t know what I was doing, I didn’t know anything about raising a girl. So I see the kind of woman you are, how kind and polite you are, how big of a heart you have and I’m so proud of that. I’ve always been proud to call you my daughter, but right now I’m ten times more proud.”

“Never expected you to be so sentimental you know.” Riley told him, forcing her emotions to stay at bay so that she didn’t cry again in front of him, she knew that was the last thing he needed.

Dave shrugged and told her, “I’m allowed to get a little sentimental on my death bed.”

“Excuses, excuses.” She joked.

- - -

Shea had sent Dave a text earlier that afternoon, telling him he was thinking of him and that if he needed anything to say the word, and then a minute, maybe two, after that he sent another asking man to man if he needed to get some time off and come home. To which Dave threatened that he better not, but Shea had already discussed it with all the appropriate people, and had a flight booked back to Kelowna tomorrow afternoon.

He would arrive closer to nine at night, and neither Dave nor Riley knew about it. Whether or not they had three days off between games wasn’t an issue for Shea, he would have missed a few games if need be, but he knew that fact that he wouldn’t be missing anything but a practice or two that were option would make Dave feel more comfortable with him showing up to be there.

He was seated in his stall in the locker room after the usual post-game media rigmarole, and despite the fact that he was home alone with just the dog Shea couldn’t wait to get home. He had made a point to pack before heading to the rink for the game earlier this evening just so that once he got home he could get a good few hours of sleep in before he had to be back at the rink for practice the next morning, where he would go directly from the arena to the airport to catch his flight. He knew he would be exhausted by the time he got to Kelowna but he needed to be there and he would much rather be there with Riley and Dave than here in Nashville waiting for that phone call.

Pekka watched him from his own stall, unsure of what was going on with his captain who had spent almost an hour in their coach’s office with a few important team people before the game started, and was checking his phone every chance he could, even during intermissions. Finally Pekka leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and asked Shea, “What’s going on man?”

Shea glanced over at Pekka, and a few of the guys turned their attention to Shea, clearly intrigued by what he had to say to Pekka’s question. Shea simply asked the goal tender, “What do you mean?”

“You’re all… weird. You’re meeting with people before the game, and constantly checking your phone, you’ve been quiet… you didn’t ask for a trade or anything did you?” Pekka asked him, both curious and slightly worried over the fact that maybe Shea had asked for a trade and would end up leaving them to go play for the God awful Canucks or something.

Shea smiled, shook his head and told him, “I didn’t ask for a trade.”

Pekka let out a visible breath of relief and told him, “Thank God, because straight up if you leave I’m going with you. Packaged deal and all, and frankly I like Nashville and don’t want to leave sooo…”

Shea, along with the guys in the room that had yet to leave, let out a good, long laugh at that. Pekka rolled his eyes at that laughter, he didn’t see what was so funny about that, he was totally serious. When word got around that Shea had decided to leave Nashville and sign with the Flyers a few seasons previous Pekka spent hours trying to figure out how he could get traded there. Thankfully that deal went down the drain faster than he could say Philadelphia and all was well now.

When Shea didn’t elaborate on what it was that had him so distracted Pekka pushed again, “So what’s going on?”

“I’m heading out to Kelowna for a few days tomorrow.” Shea told him, and whoever else was interested in listening in the locker room. He pushed his hand through his damp hair and hit the lock button on his phone, checking to see if Riley had called. She hadn’t, but she did send him a text so he unlocked his phone and read it, smiling slightly at her words. Dad says good game, I say you played like shit but hey at least you got Dave’s approval.

“Earth to El captain…” Pekka called out, gaining Shea’s attention again.

“Sorry, Riley.” Shea explained, and when Pekka nodded slowly, still leaning against his elbows staring intently at him Shea explained his reason for taking off mid-season, “Dave’s in the hospital.”

Pekka’s face fell and he asked, “For real?”

Shea nodded and told him, “Riley got there today, but apparently he’d been there for months and never told her.”

“So if you’re going…” It was Roman this time who asked, which surprised Shea. Roman knew Dave, but not nearly as well as Pekka did, but Shea had a feeling Roman was asking more for Riley than he was for Dave. Most guys would have an issue with the relationship Riley and Roman had if they were Shea, but frankly it had never bothered him, and especially now with Roman going through what he was he was glad Riley got along so well with him.

“Yeah.” Was all Shea said, the guys seemed to get quiet, likely unsure of what to say in this situation.

Pekka asked Shea quietly, “How’s Riley doing?”

“She’s pretty pissed he didn’t tell her.” Shea told him, and Pekka nodded. He knew Riley, he figured she would be but Shea knew that wasn’t what he wanted to know so he told the goal tender, “Honestly I’m not sure. She hasn’t really talked to me since she got there, but I’ll let you know tomorrow when I see her.”

“You need a ride to the airport?” Pekka asked him, and when Shea shrugged and then nodded he said, “I’ll pick you up, text me tonight and let me know when you need to leave by.”

With that Shea and the rest of the guys finally got up and gathered their stuff, leaving the locker room. Shea was the last one out, as usual, and he stayed seated in his stall for a moment with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. His fingers were tangled in his hair, which silently he noted need a cut, probably the first thing Riley would tell him when she saw him tomorrow, he was surprised she hadn’t stated it already. He let out a breath of air, sucked another back in before he straightened up and stood up, and grabbing his things he left the locker room and eventually the arena completely.

The drive home was quiet, he didn’t even turn the radio on, and when he pulled into the driveway, and the lights from his vehicle shined into the window he saw Dug jump down from where he was on the couch looking out of the window. In any other situation Shea would have scolded him when he got inside, but all he did was chuckle as he made his way up the walkway and into the house, and he knelt down on the floor in the foyer and gave Dug a good pet.

He locked up the house, and made his way upstairs, kicking his shoes off and into the closet floor before he hung his suit back in the dry cleaning bag and got into bed. He sat against the headboard with his phone held to his ear as he called Riley, she answered on the fourth ring, “Hey.”

“Hey, how are you?” Shea asked her, glancing around the bedroom for a moment, trying to decide if he had missed anything while packing earlier that day that he might need.

He heard shuffling, and figured she was going out into the hall or leaving the hospital all together, and after a few seconds of silence on her end she told him, “I’m okay. Exhausted honestly.”

“You staying there or going back to his place tonight?” Shea asked curiously, in their rush to get her there they hadn’t really talked about any of the details of once she got there. They hadn’t even talked about Shea going with her, or him meeting her there.

“Staying here, there’s a couch in his room I’ll probably just sleep on that.” Riley told him quietly, and he could hear movement, she was probably pacing whatever surface she was standing on.

He couldn’t help but smile and tell her, “Yeah, you’re pint size you’ll fit.”

She chuckled and informed him, “You’re a giant, you don’t get to comment on my height thanks.”

Shea laughed at that, and when things got quiet again between them he asked her softly, “How is he?”

She hesitated to answer, unsure of what to say, and Shea knew that wasn’t a good sign. Finally she sighed and told him, “His energy comes and goes. He couldn’t sit through your whole game but every time I tried to turn it off so he could sleep he yelled at me to put it back because he was listening.”

“Sounds like Dave.” Shea told her quietly.

“Yeah.” Was all she said, at first. After a few seconds of silence Riley admitted to Shea, on the verge of tears again, “I hate this. Am I really supposed to just sit here and wait for him to die?”

Shea sighed, as quietly as he could, and he told her, “I know. I’ve been there, and it sucks, but you should go back inside and be with him. Trust me, you’ll regret it more if you aren’t there for every second you can be right now.”

“I know. You’ll come home, if I need you right?” When she asked this her voice was so quiet, as if she was afraid to ask him that, or maybe she was just afraid of the answer and it made Shea feel bad for lying to her, but he knew if he told her he was getting on a plane tomorrow Riley would have a fit over him missing so much time so close to the end of the season, and he didn’t want to make anything any harder on her right now.

“You know I will. Just say the word.”