Start Me Up

It had taken Shea around a week to get used to the fact that he was no longer a Nashville Predator but a Montreal Canadien, and then it took him another week to get used to the idea that things were going to change big time in Montreal. In that week things between he and Tessa had seemed to get weirder and weirder; things were normal, good even, but they both could read between the lines, things were going to change big time. Tessa hadn’t brought up their future, neither together nor separate, beyond the end of the off season so Shea didn’t either no matter how much he wanted to. He had thought several times over the last week to simply ask her what he had been meaning to ask her before he had been traded but it never seemed like the right time.

He thought maybe they should have a conversation about this season, and whether or not he was going to Montreal on his own or not first.

So he was climbing the stairs to find Tessa, she was in their bedroom hanging laundry on the line he had set up on the balcony when she had informed him that it was absolutely pointless to use a dryer when they could just do it outside.

She turned to look at him when she heard him step out onto the balcony and she smiled gently, “Hey.”

“Hey.” He mimicked, sitting down next to her and looking over the pile of clothing in the hamper in front of it. Most of it were his shirts, there were a few of her own in there as well but it was all his stuff so he felt obliged to help hang things.

Tessa, of course, told him as he grabbed a shirt, “You don’t have to do that.”

“I know I don’t, but neither do you.” He pointed out, and when she shrugged he went on to say, “You don’t have to do any of the stuff you’ve been doing, you know.”

He was talking about cooking, and cleaning, doing the laundry, all of it.

“I guess I’m just used to it.” She told him softly, and he nodded his head slowly but he didn’t say anything to that because frankly, he wasn’t sure how to.

“So, can we talk about some things?” Shea asked her, a little apprehensively. Tessa turned to him and raised her eyebrow so he explained, “There’s only another month and a half left of summer… I just thought maybe we could talk about… you know, Montreal.”

“Oh.” Was all that came out of her mouth. Her cell phone, on the little glass patio table next to her, started ringing so she instinctively glanced over toward it and when she saw that it was her mother calling she turned to Shea and asked, “Can you hold that thought? It’s my mom.”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll wait.” Shea told her, unaware of how annoyed he sounded when he said it.

Tessa sighed and said, “She hasn’t talked to me in months Shea, you know what she’s like, if I don’t answer she won’t call again.”

“I said it’s fine.”

Rolling her eyes Tessa picked up the phone, hit accept and held it to her ear, “Hello?”

“I was just about to hang up, you know.” Elanor told her, and Shea watched as Tessa rolled her eyes in response to whatever was said on the phone.

“What’s going on?” Tessa asked, tucking a stray piece of blonde hair back behind her ear.

“Your sister is the in the hospital, I just thought you should know that… in case you cared.”

Tessa ignored the not so subtle little dig at her, asking her, “What happened? Is she okay?”

She looked over to Shea, their eyes meeting, his brow raised but Tessa didn’t say anything as she listened to Elanor say, “She’s fine. She was in a car accident. I have to go.”

Tessa pulled her eyes away from Shea to look down at her phone as she pulled it away from her ear when the line went dead. She rolled her eyes again, and that was when Shea asked her, “What was that all about?”

“Amelia was in a car accident.” Tessa told him, and both of his eyebrows shot up in surprise. She added, “She’s okay, apparently.”

“Good.”

“I should go, to St. Louis.” Tessa said, turning to face Shea as she added, “I know you wanted to talk, and I get it, and we will talk, I promise… when I get back.”

“You’re gonna come back?” He regretted even asking it once it came out of his mouth. He wasn’t sure why he had, it had just came out before he could even think otherwise. Tessa’s eyebrow raised, Shea cleared his throat and told her, “We’ll talk when you get back, go pack a bag.”

So she did as he told her, she packed herself a small bag while she called the airport to book a flight to St. Louis for that afternoon. With her bag packed Shea put it in the back of his vehicle and then he told her that he was taking her out for lunch, because they had some time to kill and he didn’t like the idea of her not eating before her flight.

So as they sat across from each other in a little local restaurant Tessa watched him as he watched what was going on around them, his eyes mostly watching the water on the lake outside of the window. She pulled his attention back to her by asking him, “Do you want to talk about it now?”

“Talk about what?” He asked her, eyebrow lifted just slightly.

She shot him a look and reminded him, “The whole Montreal thing.”

“Oh… right.” He said slowly, before he shrugged, “Maybe we should wait until you’re home, when we can take our time talking about it, you know? I don’t want to rush the conversation.”

Could have fooled me.

“Yeah, okay.” Tessa was a little bit perturbed with him, but she wasn’t about to start an argument.

Shea seemed content with leaving the conversation there because he asked her, “What time do you get in?”

“Like nine-thirty.” Tessa told him, glancing at the itinerary in her emails on her phone, double checking the arrival time. She nodded and said, “Yeah, nine-thirty.”

“You’ll call me when you get in, right?” Shea asked her, adding in, “It will only be like seven-thirty here.”

“I’ll call.” She told him, pushing her food around on her plate. Shea noticed that but he didn’t speak to it. Tessa cleared her throat and she looked over at him and asked him, “You’re okay with this, right?”

“What? With you going home?” When he asked her this she nodded and he surprised her by reaching across the table for her hand. He gave it a squeeze and he told her, “I’d be upset if you didn’t. The only thing I don’t like is why you’re going… I know I probably have no right to say this but despite everything that’s happened I do still care about Amelia.”

Tessa smiled gently over at him and she told him, “Thank you.”

“For what?” He asked her, eyebrow raised just the slightest.

She told him, “For being so supportive. I just… after everything that’s gone on the last few years I don’t know if I’ve ever shared with you how much I appreciate that about you.”

“Tess… it’s really not a big deal. Anyone who doesn’t support their spouse even when things are… kind of going to shit means they aren’t ready to be in a relationship.” Shea explained to her.

Curiously Tessa asked him, “So you think things are going to shit between us?”

With a sigh he explained, “No. I just mean… things are a little messy, really unclear between us/ This trade kind of threw us off track, and that’s okay it just means eventually we have to figure out how to get back on track.”

“I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings that day.” Tessa told him, she hadn’t said that before now to him, and he appreciated it even though he knew she didn’t really need to say it because she had every night to have the reaction that she did.

He told her that, “You have the right to react however you react Tess. That was a big thing and I’m just… I’m glad I have you with me through all of this whether you go with me or you don’t.”

“I want to… I really want to.” Tessa told him, she paused and just when it felt like she was going to give him a reason for why the alarm on her phone went off, telling them that they had to get to the airport.

Shea watched as Tessa sighed, tucked her hair behind her ears and her blue eyes met his brown ones, he smiled and said, “Conversation for another time.”

“Yeah.” She agreed softly, nodding her head for good measure.

“I’ll go pay for our food, meet you at the vehicle.” Shea told her, standing up and digging into the pocket of his shorts before he extended his hand with his keys in them.

Tessa took them, and got up once he started toward the front of the restaurant. She gathered her purse and her phone, took one last look at the table to make sure that neither of them had left anything, which was a good thing because Shea had left his hat hooked on the back of his back so she grabbed that and headed outside.

She had only been sitting in the truck for a minute or two when he climbed into it and put his seatbelt on. The ride to the airport was silent between them, Tessa mostly watched the road as they drove, despite the fact that Shea kept looking over at her while he drove.

When he pulled into a parking lot at the airport, paying for half an hour Shea turned to Tessa and he asked her, “I know I don’t have any right to be there, but I’d go with you if you wanted.”

She smiled, reaching out to take his hand as she told him, “And I love you for it but I don’t even think I’m gonna be there long. I just can’t not go, you know? I’m just going to make sure she’s okay, I’ll probably be home tomorrow night.”

Shea nodded, “Take all the time you need.”

She smiled as she said, “I’ll call you as soon as I land.”

“You’d better.” He told her with a soft smile.

She squeezed his hand and said, “Plus I have a stop in Calgary so I’ll probably check in on you then, and a layover in Chicago too.”

“Check in on me, huh? What are you afraid I’m gonna invite my secret girlfriend over while you’re gone?” Shea asked her in amusement.

Tessa let out a laugh and told him, “Nah, I’m not worried about that… I just want to make sure you’re eating, that you’re alive, you know.”

He smiled and leaned over to press a soft, sweet kiss to her lips before he pulled back, he didn’t get very far because Tessa put her hand on the back of his neck and pulled him closer to her for another kiss, and then three quick ones after that.

Finally she pulled away from him and he told her, “I guess you should go.”

“I’ll let you know when I book a flight home.”

Home.

He was relieved to hear that. Maybe the trade hadn’t truly derailed things between them as much as he had thought it had.

Nodding Shea told her, “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Tessa told him, leaning in for one more quick kiss before she got out and grabbed her bag from the back seat of the truck. She waved as she headed inside the airport, he waved back and then she disappeared from his view and Shea leaned back in his seat and let out a breath of air.

Hours later Tessa landed in St. Louis, she sent Shea a text to let him know she had landed and that she would call him once she got to her hotel so when she tossed her bag onto her bed in her room she ordered some dinner and then she pulled her phone out of her purse and dialed his number. She put him on speaker phone as she got undressed and redressed into pyjamas.

He answered on the third ring, “Settled in?”

“In pyjamas, I’m about to crawl into this nice big bed and probably watch TV until I fall asleep.” Tessa told him with a soft smile. As she placed her bag on the luggage rack by the bathroom door she then told him, “I’ll probably head out to the hospital first thing in the morning.”

“Keep me updated?” He asked her, and she smiled gently as she pulled the covers back and crawled into the bed.

As she adjusted the pillows at her back while she sat against the headboard Tessa asked him, “Do you think this is stupid?”

“Do I think what is stupid?” Shea asked her for clarification.

She explained, “Flying out here just to make sure she’s really okay? I’m just worried that… I don’t know.”

“It’s not. I’d do it for my brother. Hell I’d probably even do it for Peks, I’ve tried before.” Shea told her and she relaxed a little hearing that.

Curiously she asked him, “What do you mean you’ve tried before?”

He was quiet on the other end of the line for a moment, hesitation clear in his voice as he told her, “A couple summer’s ago he got… jumped in Finland I guess. I was on an airline website when he called to tell me he would have me killed the minute I showed up. I think he was just embarrassed about the whole thing, so I let him have his way about it.”

“I had no idea. He never told me.” Tessa said quietly, adding in after, “But you’re a good friend, you know.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Shea said softly. He heard the knock on her door through the phone and asked, “Late night booty call with your secret boyfriend?”

“I ordered room service, hang on a minute.” She told him with a laugh as she got up from the bed and headed to the door quickly. She pulled it open, accepting her meal before she tipped the worker who brought it up, despite him telling her it wasn’t necessary. She closed the door behind her, locking it up before grabbing her plate and bottle of water and heading back to the bed.

Shea heard her ruffling around and he asked her, “Are you back?”

“I’m back.” She told him, lifting the lid off of the tray.

“What did you get?” He asked her curiously.

“Steak.” Tessa told him.

Shea chuckled, “You ordered steak through room service?”

“Yup. I needed to call you and I didn’t really feel like making myself presentable just to look like the world’s biggest dork eating alone in the restaurant.” Tessa told him, adding in, “You don’t get to judge, not all of us have the convenience of the company for thirty some odd people for meals when they’re on the road.”

He laughed again and he told her, “No judgement… at least not if you tell me you ordered your steak rare.”

“Have you met me?” She asked him, and then she joked, “They say there’s no stupid questions but I beg to differ.”

“And here I thought you were supposed to be nice to me.” Shea joked, and Tessa let out a laugh.

“Good one.”

- - -

Elanor was nowhere to be found when Tessa arrived at the hospital, she thought maybe she was in Amelia’s room but when Tessa arrived there she was alone. It appeared that she was sleeping, and it felt like someone had glued Tessa’s feet to the floor because she couldn’t move any further than the doorway. Amelia didn’t look any different aside from the obvious baby bump she was now sporting and Tessa couldn’t peel her eyes away from it.

That was until Amelia asked her, her voice groggy, “Are you just gonna stand there and stare at me all day?”

Tessa finally looked over at her and in surprise she asked, “You’re awake?”

“Yeah, I’ve been awake for a while.” Amelia told her, asking then, “Well? Are you gonna come in?”

“Can I?” Tessa asked her and when Amelia nodded she stepped inside. She took another few steps forward, and then she motioned to the chair next to Amelia’s bed and she asked her, “Is this okay? Can I sit?”

“It’s a free country.” She told her, and Tessa didn’t budge and inch so she smiled and said, “Yeah, Tess you can sit.”

Tessa hadn’t been aware of how much she missed hearing Amelia call her Tess until this moment.

She sat down in the chair and then she looked around the room and asked, “Where’s mom?”

“Out somewhere, I don’t know. She’s barely been here.” Amelia stated dismissively.

Tessa hesitated, before she approached her next question with caution, “And… Aaron?”

Amelia turned to her in surprise, “You know about Aaron?”

Shrugging Tessa explained, “I put two and two together.”

She left out the fact that it was Shea who had done that for her, that didn’t need to be said now.

When Amelia only nodded Tessa went on to ask her, “How are you?”

“I’m good, great actually. I’m finally, really, happy.” Amelia told her with a soft smile, adding in, “I guess I never realized how unhappy both Shea and I were together. I always thought it was just him but now I know it was both of us.”

“I’m glad you’re happy.” Tessa told her, she wasn’t going to touch the Shea subject with a ten foot pole around Amelia.

“I assume you’re happy, too.” Amelia stated, watching as Tessa nodded her head. She then went on to say, “I heard about the trade.”

“Yeah.”

Tessa was caught off guard when Amelia asked her, “Are you gonna go with him?”