Start Me Up

April 7th was a big day, one that Shea had been counting down to for a week now, impatiently waiting for the day to roll around for two very different reasons. The first being the final home game of the season, and the second being that Amelia had a doctor's appointment that morning. Shea didn't know what the plan was; if she would call right after, or if she would take some time to let things sink in, or maybe Amelia wouldn't call at all and she would have Elanor do it again. That seemed like the most likely option.

So as he laid in Tessa's bed, next to her, with his phone on the nightstand beside him with the volume on as high as it would go Shea let out a sigh. Tessa rubbed his forearm and then she grabbed his hand and she told him, "Relax. Her appointment is at ten-thirty, so it's barely even started."

"I know." Was all he could get out of his mouth.

"Just put it out of your head for a while." Tessa told him softly, giving his hand a squeeze.

Before he could stop himself he asked her, "Do you have any idea who's else it might be?"

Tessa shook her head, "Not a clue. It's not like we've been talking since she left, you know."

"I know." Shea said softly.

She knew she should have left the conversation alone but she knew Shea wanted to talk about the scenarios so she told him, "Amelia doesn't do one night stands."

"I know."

"And she wouldn't have had time to meet someone, date and then get pregnant since getting back to St. Louis." Tessa told him, she knew she wasn't helping any but this seemed to be what Shea wanted to know.

"True." It was starting to look more and more like this baby was Shea's to both of them, but who said it out loud first?

Tessa cleared her throat and said, "So unless she was cheating on you... which is doubtful..."

"Wouldn't have been the first time." The words came out of his mouth before he could stop them and he regretted even opening his mouth in the first place when Tessa turned her head to look at him.

"What?" She was surprised, he knew that much. Shea had always assumed that Tessa knew everything about his relationship with Amelia, but now it was proving that his initial thoughts were so very off about just what kind of sibling relationship she and Amelia had.

She rolled onto her stomach to face him better and Shea sighed and told her, "It wouldn't be the first time, she cheated before."

"When?" Tessa could say this was probably even more surprising to hear than finding out Amelia was pregnant in the first place.

"Twice... we had been dating for a few months, maybe six or eight. She was on a business trip back to St. Louis and apparently it was with some old boyfriend." Shea told her, it felt good to finally tell someone that. Not even Pekka knew about that.

Tessa's brow lifted, "You mean Aaron?"

"What? Her boss? No." Shea was quick to say, looking at Tessa as if she had three heads. So she nodded slowly and looked away from him and that was when Shea knew that she knew something that he didn't. So he asked, "Why would you think that Tessa?"

She sighed and looked over at him again and she bit down on the inside of her cheek for a moment or two before she sighed again and then she told him, "The only boyfriend Amelia had before you was Aaron."

Shea was silent for a long time, too long in Tessa's opinion. She felt bad for even opening her mouth in the first place but she thought that Shea would have known that, but now that she thought about it, she realized there was no way he would have been okay with Amelia working for Aaron had he known. Tessa sighed, and she placed her hand flat on his chest, and she went to say something but Shea flew off of the handle before she could, "So you're saying that for five fucking years I went to work events with her, and talked sports with him, and we all had dinner's together and the whole time he was the one she... wow... wow."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything." Tessa spoke softly, watching as he turned to her and the fire in his eyes seemed to simmer at once.

He shook his head and told her, "No, I'm glad you did. I don't want you to think that I'm... that this freak out is more than what it is. I'm just surprised, and I feel a little stupid to have not known this whole time but that's all it is Tessa, really."

"I know." She told him. And she rubbed her thumb against his chest gently, before she asked him curiously, "Did you ever wonder if she was... if it happened more than once?"

"All the time. Every single time she walked out the door for a work trip, honestly." Shea admitted to her honestly, and then after a moment of silence between the two of them he flipped the same question on Tessa, "What about with Jacob?"

"Honestly, not even once, even now. He was a shitty husband but that was always the one thing I never worried about." Tessa told him, and Shea nodded his head slowly. She rested her chin on her hands on his chest and looked over at him to ask, "Is that why you had such a big issue with her job?"

"I knew if I said why she would have freaked out and assumed that I didn't trust her, which... sometimes I didn't but... I don't know, knowing what I do now about Aaron... I think had I known that was who it was our relationship would have been over a long time before it was." Shea told Tessa, and he reached out to tuck her blonde hair behind her ears. Then he told her, "And then you and I probably wouldn't have had the chance to happen so I guess I'm glad I never knew it was him all those years."

She smiled gently, and she shifted enough that she could lean up and kiss him quickly before she rolled onto her back again, and she reached underneath the blanket and between them to pinch his hip. He shifted and turned to her with a raised eyebrow and she told him with a giggle in her voice, "Just wanted to be a pest, you were getting too serious on me."

He went to say something but his phone beeped loudly beside them and it caused them both to jump. Shea immediately rolled onto his side to check it, and then he turned to Tessa with a look of near fear on his face as he told her quietly, "It's Amelia."

"And?" Tessa asked him softly, and tentatively. She knew what she wanted that text to say, but she was so, so sure that it wasn't going to say what she wanted.

So as Shea dropped onto his back on the mattress again Tessa once again rolled to her side to face him as he let out a breath of air, hand over his eyes, and then he told her, "Six weeks."

Tessa dropped her head to her hands on his chest and sighed, and Shea couldn't stop himself from letting a laugh bubble out of his mouth. Tessa lifted her head and she looked at him with a quirked eyebrow, eventually, she smiled, and then she too was laughing with him. He didn't laugh often, at least not a laugh like this, but it was contagious when he did.

"Okay so, when we start talking about starting a family lets make sure we're both on the same page about it. Alright?" Shea asked her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her on top of him. Tessa smiled and placed both hands on the side's of his face as she settled with her legs between his, chest to his chest and she leaned down and kissed him.

When she pulled back she told him, "Alright. I like plans."

"I know you do." Shea told her, and Tessa let out a squeal when he rolled them over so that he was on top of her, keeping his weight more on the mattress underneath them than anything. He put his head on her shoulder, kissed her soft skin twice and then he admitted, "God I'm relieved."

She ran a hand through the hair at the back of his head and she shifted enough that she could wrap her legs slightly around him; feet resting on the mattress between the insides of his own legs. That was when she asked him, "Are you really relieved? You can tell me if you're a little disappointed you know."

Shea sighed and he rested his chin against her collar bone as he admitted, "A kid would have been okay, kind of nice actually but not like this. Not with someone I'm not with, someone who doesn't even live in the same state as me. A baby will be nice when it's planned properly and with someone who I actually want a future with because I don't plan on doing this whole marriage, kids, and a family thing twice."

"Marriage isn't something you quit." Tessa mused, and Shea looked instantly guilty.

"Tess... I didn't mean it like that at all." He was quick to tell her, and she smiled.

She leaned up to kiss him quickly twice before she assured him, "No, no I know and that's not why I was saying that. It's nice to hear someone else think like that, I was beginning to think I was the only person on the planet that thought that."

"You're not, believe me." Shea smiled as he told her that. He pressed a sweet kiss to her jaw, and then to her cheek and then once on her lips before he pulled back and he asked her gently, "Do you ever just stop to think about how good we are together?"

"How do you mean?" She asked him, brow slightly raised and she hoped he didn't get offended by her question.

He didn't; he just smiled down at her and explained what he had meant, "Like... how much sense you and I make as a couple; we go together pretty well and I was just wondering if I was the only one who had noticed that yet."

She shook her head, "You're not the only one. I can honestly say that no one has ever made me feel the way that you do, and I've never been this happy before, and I really hope you know that."

"I know that, and I'm happy that you're happy and that I make you happy because you make me happy." Shea told her and a giggle bubbled out of her mouth that made him look at her with a brow raised in questioning.

Her cheeks flushed and she said, "It's beginning to sound like Dr. Suess in here."

Shea let out a laugh and he rested his forehead against her collarbone, nipping gently at her skin for a moment to make her squirm. He then kissed her skin gently where he had bit at it before he mumbled against her, "No one has ever made me laugh the way that you do."

"Thanks, I try." Tessa joked, grinning down at him as he looked up at her in amusement. They both laughed.

Shea's phone beeped again from the nightstand so he reached over to grab it, stretching just enough for his fingers to pull it to the side of the nightstand so that he could grab it and then he read the text message waiting and he laughed.

He read it to Tessa, "'I request the presence of you and your lady friend for lunch. And by request I mean would you please join me if you have the time and if you feel like it.'"

Tessa let out a laugh at that, and she asked him, "Peks?"

"Yup." Shea told her, and then he looked at her and waited for an answer.

"Tell him we'll be there." She said, and when Shea jokingly sighed she rolled her eyes and informed him, "I'm starving and you're hurting me."

So he rolled off of her and the moment he did so Tessa jumped out of bed and Shea watched as she pulled the closet door open and stood in front of it. He looked at the overflowing closet, laughed and told her, "Big closet with lots of storage."

She turned to look at him over her shoulder, brow raised, "What?"

He explained, "A big closet with lots of storage is now on my list."

"List of what?" She asked him curiously, pulling out a crushed velvet top before she shook her head and shoved it, literally shoved it back into the closet and Shea was sure it didn't even get hung on the rod, that it was just stuck between the mountainous selection of overstuffed clothing.

He told her, "My list of things we absolutely have to have when we get a place together."

Tessa nearly dropped the pair of jeans she had pulled off of the top shelf of the closet when she heard him say this. She paused, stuffed the jeans back where she had found them and then she turned to him and she asked him, a joking tone to her voice, "What makes you think I even want to move in with you?"

Shea grinned, "Because you hate being alone."

She rolled her eyes, "I hate you for knowing that."

Shea laughed and he got up from the bed and approached her, wrapping his arms around her middle and pulling her back into his chest as he spoke softly to her, "I know that we're trying to take things a little slower than we were before so I'm not gonna do anything crazy like asking you to move in with me for a while. At least, not until I have my own place."

"You have a place." Tessa reminded him. She couldn't forget that.

Shea told her, "A place you would feel comfortable spending the night in."

"Shea..." She started but he cut her off with a kiss to her lips.

When he pulled back he assured her, "I get why you don't, honestly, I wouldn't feel comfortable with you being there either given all that's happened. It's just... finding a new place when the season is basically over seems pointless so I thought I'd worry about that later."

Tessa didn't know what to say to that so all she did was turn enough to lean up and kiss him quickly and then she pushed her butt out to push him away from her a little bit as he told him, "I need to get dressed."

Shea took a blatant look at her boy short covered butt and he told her with a smirk, "You don't really have to."

She grinned over her shoulder at him and gathered a few items of clothing before she stepped into the bathroom and closed the door. He heard her call out from behind the door, "You should get dressed too, don't want to keep goalie boy waiting... I've missed him."

Shea had gotten dressed; jeans, a t-shirt and a light sweater, and then he knocked on the bathroom door and told Tessa, "I'd like to brush my teeth before we go anywhere."

So the doorknob turned and Shea pushed the door open to find her standing in a bra and underwear braiding her hair out of her face. Again he took a moment to not so subtly check her out, which resulted in her meeting his eyes in the mirror and sticking her tongue out. Finally, he grabbed his toothbrush from next to hers in the cup by the sink and started brushing his teeth.

Tessa tied her braid off and then, much to Shea's disappointment, she pulled a dress over herself, covering herself up. He watched as she then slipped a zip-up hoodie on, and then a jean jacket over top of that and while she pulled the hood from her sweater out from underneath the denim Shea asked her, "Are you wearing pink?"

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Tessa asked him with a smile as she did up her watch.

"Nope." He told her, putting his toothbrush back in the cup next to hers.

"Good." Tessa told him, popping a pair of studs in her ears and slipping a ring on her index finger before she led him out of the bathroom, through the apartment and to the door.

Shea slipped into runners and as Tessa zipped up up a pair of ankle boots he told her, "I've just never seen you wear pink... it's kind of strange. You almost look like a normal woman... you know, minus the hoodie and jean jacket."

He grinned at her when she looked up at him, and as she got up from the couch and headed toward him she told him, "Jackass."

"So elegant." He joked as she grabbed her bag and then together they left the apartment.

Tessa, while locking the door, told him, "I'll have you know I am actually extremely ladylike."

She paused, their eyes met, and they both burst into laughter. As they headed to the elevator Tessa reached down between them and slipped her hand into his, she wasn't big on public displays of affection, usually, this was even a little much but for some reason, after the week that they had, this felt right.

She even went so far as to lean against his side once they were in the elevator on their way down to the lobby. She did drop his hand once they stepped off of the elevator but that didn't bother Shea because, much like Tessa, he wasn't very fond of PDA either. Tessa took control of the stereo the moment Shea started the car, not surprising to him.

She started turning the dial through the XM stations when Shea asked her, "What channel are you looking for?"

"Ozzy's, duh." She told him without looking away from what she was doing.

She rolled her eyes when Shea reached out and pushed a button to bring up his pre-selected favorites and he told her, "It's already in there."

This time she did look over at him in surprise, "You put my favorite station in your favorites?"

"So what if I did?" Shea asked her, brow raised as he came to a stop at a red light.

Tessa smiled to herself as she found it, and played it, and then she told him, "That's the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me."

"If that's actually true you hang out with some fucked up people." Shea told her, and Tessa let out a laugh.

The moment he put the truck into park in a spot at the restaurant they were meeting Pekka at Tessa was out of the truck and meeting him around the front like a bat out of hell. When Shea was moving a little too slowly for her liking Tessa asked him, "Would you hurry up? I'm hungry."

He let out a laugh and wrapped an arm around her to pull her into his side and he pressed a kiss to her head before he let her go and he told her, "Never a dull moment."

"I try." She said with a grin, and she located the blonde goaltender with ease at a table in the corner.

Shea chuckled to himself when she picked up her pace and left him in her dust, dropping into one of the chairs dramatically. When he arrived he moved her bag from the chair next to her and onto the chair next to Pekka, shooting her a pointed look with a smile that told her that he knew what she had been up to with that.

She sighed, "Why do I always have to sit next to the caveman?"

Pekka grinned over at her and informed her, "Because you're sleeping with him?"

Tessa rolled her eyes and groaned, "Don't remind me."

Shea turned and narrowed his eyes at her and he told her, "Thin ice."

"You so don't scare me." Tessa challenged him back with, grinning when he rolled his eyes. Once that seemed to be settled Tessa turned to Pekka and asked him, "So goalie boy... what's up?"

"Nothing. What, I have to have a reason to ask my two best friends to go for lunch with me?" Pekka asked them, brow raised.

Shea nodded and said, "Yes, you do."

"Plus you said two best friends, implying that Shea is your best friend, for which you would have to be bat-shit crazy to say out loud so..." Tessa told him with a grin and Pekka laughed.

Shea reached down and pinched her thigh, making her jump and reach out to pinch his back. That was when Pekka said, "Alright, enough. I don't need to see these things."

"So what's the point to this lunch? Someone needs to distract me from the fact that I could eat the entire menu I'm so hungry." Tessa stated, and Pekka's brow raised.

He looked at Shea and asked, "Do you ever feed her?"

"She eats more than I do, I swear." Shea told him.

Pekka looked over at Tessa and then he mused, "And yet she looks like that... that is just unfair."

"Don't even start with me goalie boy." Tessa warned.

"Alright. So... the real reason I've asked you both to lunch." Pekka stated, leaning forward with his hands clasped together on the table, but he didn't say anything.

Shea and Tessa exchanged glances, and then Tessa finally said, "Out with it!"

"So... I've been sort of seeing someone." Pekka told them, and Tessa stared at him in surprise. Pekka nodded, in response to her silent question, and he then explained, "It's a new thing. Like a few weeks, really casual, and I didn't want to say anything to like... jinx it or anything."

"Okay... forgive me for getting all girly on you but details, now... please." Tessa told him quickly, and both Shea and Pekka laughed.

Pekka told her, "Her name's Tara, and she's coming to the game tonight and I kind of told her that you would sit with her so if you weren't planning on going to the game you are now."

"Please, like I would miss the final home game." Tessa told her, and then after a moment or two, she went on, "Anyway, her name is Tara... what's she like? Is she nice? Because that's kind of a requirement for me, same with some decent fashion sense, although that one I can work on if need be. I mean, look at how much Shea's appearance has improved since I got my claws on it."

"Hey, Tessa?" Shea asked her, and when she turned to look at him he grinned and told her, "Breathe babe."

She narrowed her eyes at him and then turned to Pekka and told him, "On with it!"

Shea looked at the goaltender from across the table and told him, "Sorry man."