Disclaimer: I own nothing except my imagination.

a/n: Thank you everyone for the reviews to this story. I really love writing it as I hope you love to read it too. So I think it's about time Haley and Matt get some best friends time since we haven't seen enough of it since the beginning of the story.


One Week Later

Haley's POV

The days since I had shown Matt his birthday present had gone by painfully slow but we were finally was almost four and I was meeting him at his place at five so we could go grab some food before heading there. I put on my skinny jeans and a long sleeve shirt under my red Hawks Jersey. I grew up watching the likes of Chris Chellios, Denis Savard,and the Sutter brothers and my father used to tell me stories about Bobby Hull when I was just a child. In the last years, a group of young talented players managed to bring pride to the city of Chicago by finally bringing the cup back home. Chicago hadn't been that animated in years. I put my old black converses and my cap before heading out the door. A few minutes later, I got to Matt's apartment building and headed up the stairs and knocked on his door waiting for him to answer but the door opened to Gabby.

"Hey Haley. Come in, he's almost done getting ready." She stepped aside letting me in.

"Hey Dawson. Are you joining us at Molly's after the game?" I asked looking around. It was the first time that I was in his new place.

"Yes, I'm behind the bar tonight." She must have seen me look around because she started fidgetting. "Oh my god where are my manners. Come in, I'll show you around." We moved around and she showed me everything. I was surprised that Matt decided to move out of his house and into a condo but I guess that was a choice made by the two.

"You guys have a great place." You could see that Matt wasn't done working on the place to make it theirs because there was construction equipment laying around the living room.

"Thanks. It took us a long time to find the right place."

"Well I'd say mission accomplished."

"Maybe you could come over with Adam sometime so we can have diner all together."

"Yeah i'd love that." I smiled at her and Matt finally made an appearance. "Took you long enough. You're so slow when it comes to getting ready pretty boy." I laughed at him. He was dressed casual enough with his jeans and his Hawks jersey.

"Ha ha very funny. I'm not the one who took two whole hours just to get a dress on and shoes for prom might I remind you."

"Aargghh don't remind me, it was AWFUL!" Gabby seemed to find our back and forth banter amusing because she was laughing.

"I'll tell you that story one day Gabby. Trust me there was nothing funny about it. Come on, let's go grab some food before heading there I'm hungry."

"I'll see you later baby." He kissed her pationately.

"Come on you two lovebirds, you can kiss later." I chuckled as they pulled away from each other.

"You guys have fun." She waved at us as we left.

"I thought we could grab a bite at Park Tavern before going in." I suggested as we got in my truck.

"Yeah that's perfect. So You never told me. How did you managed to get those tickets? Those are great seats."

"Nic owed me a favor and one of his business contacts has season tickets." I said as we drove towards downtown Chicago.

"Remind me to thank him the next time I see him."

"So, nice place you got there. Home come you let go of that town house?" Matt suddenly became quiet and looked out of the window. One thing I knew about Matt was when he didn't want to talk, he didn't and even I couldn't get him to talk about it. A few minutes passed before he finally spoke.

"You remember Hallie? Before you left we were broken up. Well not long after that, we got back together and." I could see he was trying to keep himself together. I put my hand on his trying to make him finish his story. "She was killed in a fire."

"Matt." I felt sick to my stomach now. This was the first time I was hearing about this. "Why didn't you call me? I would have come home."

"I was such a mess." he wiped the rest of his tears away. "When I was at the firehouse, everything was fine but as soon as I got home, it just fell apart. Gabby is the one who got me out of the pit I was in. It took us a while before finally getting together. Everyone knew we'd end up together though." He finally laughed. "Then, when I asked her to move in with me, she felt the house held too many memories for me so of course I told her we'd look for something that was our own."

"I'm happy for you. Gabby is great." I said as we parked in Park Tavern's parking lot ans we got out. The place was pretty packed already so we just grabbed the first table that was available against the wall. "Ok so i've been wanting wings for a while, sound good to you?"

"Yeah. I heard they're great here."

"How hungry are you?"

"Very." he answered as I grabbed the waiters attention.

"32 wings and two beers." I requested. "Tonight is all on me." I smiled at him. Our food got here merely ten minutes later along with our beers. "To you and Gabby." I raised my glass.

"And to your return home." I nodded and we clanked our glasses together before taking a drink. We stayed there a few hours before we had to head to the United Center. We got caught in the huge crowd of people slowly moving forward into the building.

"You remember that time we tried to sneek into here when we were thirteen maybe?" He asked as I laughed at how stupid we were back then to think we could pull something off like that.

"Yeah, we tried to make the guy think our parents were in already and that we had been seperated from them. He saw right through us."

"And that look and tongue lashing we got from your mother when she found out. I've never been so afraid of someone in my ENTIRE LIFE."

"Yeah, I think I was grounded forever after that but it was so worth it." We both handed our tickets to the men at the door before being told our seats were to our rights. I saw a counter and felt like another beer.

"You do know we have to drive back home after this right?"

"Oh come on Matt don't be a spoil sport. At the price this beer costs, it'll be the only one." Once we had our beers and more food, we made our way to our seats.

"You're going to tell you that all of that food will be shovelled down your throat?" He had a look that almost looked like disgust at the tray that was in my hand. "You have food for three grown men." He only had beer and a soft pretzel.

"I swear Matt you're acting like a five year old. We're here, in the reds, about to watch a great game between two great teams. Let a girl eat her heart out." I said as the players started jumping on the ice for pre-game warm-up. "Plus, we are here as best friends so my lieutenant isn't aloud to say anything unless the few pounds I pack up in here tonight slow me down on our next shift.

"Deal." he laughed as I started eating one of the two hot-dogs I had in my tray. For the next few hours, we enjoyed the game and drank some beer. Chicago was winning by the score of 4-2 with Jonathan Toews had two of the four goals. There was only a few minutes left to the game when he scored a third one to make a hat trick. Soon enough, people started throwing their hats onto the ice and the crowd was going insane including Matt and myself.

"I told you he could do it." Matt handed me a twenty that we had bet at the start of third period. "Nice doing business with you." I laughed out loud. We started making our way towards the exit before I pulled my phone out to see a text from Gabby asking around what time we would get there. I answered quickly that we were exiting the building and heading their way. Said I'd text her when we were parked. It took about thirty minutes before we made it to Molly's. I pulled my phone out as Matt exited on his side and waited for me next to the car.

"Who are you texting like that? Is that Ruzek?"

"None of your business, nosy. Let's get some more drinks." I pushed him towards Molly's door.

"SURPRISE" Everyone yelled as we stepped foot in the bar. Matt turned around and was grinning from ear to ear.

"Are you responsible for this?"

"I might have had a few accomplices." I patted him on the back. "Happy birthday Matt." I hugged him before we went to meet up with the rest of the gang.

"Happy birthday baby." Gabby smiled at him and kissed him across the bar. Gabby held out her fist and I bumped mine against it.

"You two? She was the one you were texting all night?"

"Yup. Sorry buddy, no date with Adam tonight. It's all about you." Gabby poured us three shots for us. "To Matt." I Bumped him against the shoulder and I lifted mine up.

"To Matt." Gabby said too as he smiled before we clanked our shots and downed them.

The rest of the night was spend mingling with everyone, dancing and even doing karaoke. Matt was surprisingly good when he had quite a few drinks in him. We ended up having fun until the wee hours of the morning before we all left to get a few hours of sleep and nurse the head aches we were sure to have.


a/n So here is some much awaited friend time between Matt and Haley. I hope you guys enjoyed it and please leave reviews, they are always appreciated.