Sorry it's been awhile... I've been working a lot lately and my sister's having yet another crisis with her boyfriend... Drama, drama, drama. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy. And please review, it feeds my muse. :)
Marissa shifted her weight nervously, not that she wasn't confident in her advice to her boyfriend… it was just that she would be traveling with these people; she didn't want them to hate her right off the bat. Plus, they were Jack's friends… "Umm…"
Erin almost immediately let the serious look drop off her face; she couldn't let the poor girl suffer like this. And it wasn't like Robbie didn't deserve it. The brunette laughed, releasing the table from the tense silence enveloping it. "I'm just kidding." She held out her hand to the other dark haired girl, who shook it hesitantly. "Robbie deserved it anyway."
"Hey!"
Ignoring her brother Erin pulled an empty barstool into the space between herself and Ava. "Have a seat." Then after casting a sly glance in OC's direction she turned back to the new girl. "So, you got any embarrassing stories to tell about the oh-so-cool Jack O'Callahan?"
Marissa smirked; she liked this girl. "Plenty."
OC groaned and pounded his head on the table. This was not going to be fun for him. "Marissa…"
The dark haired Bostonian grinned at her boyfriend's whiney tone. "Relax Jackie boy, I'll save the really embarrassing ones for when you really piss me off." Marissa turned back to the grinning McClanahan. "So, Jack and I have lived next to each other our entire lives, right? So there was this one time when my mom and dad were having this party with all these people from our church and they were all hanging out in our front yard… Well, I guess Jack's mom was giving him a bath-"
"Marissa."
Marissa grinned and continued her story. "Anyway, Jack didn't want to put his clothes back on, so to get away from his mom he started streaking down the street… He made it all the way to the park at the end of the street, and had started up the slide before his mom caught him. Needless to say, everyone at my parents' party was speechless."
Erin looked at OC, her brown eyes shining with mirth. "I guess it's a good thing you never actually made it down the slide, eh OC?"
The blonde buried his head in his arms at the resulting laughter. When it finally died down a bit he glared mischievously up at his girlfriend. "I'll get you for this Jenkins."
Marissa smirked and blew him a kiss. "Looking forward to it, Chuckles."
Val looked down at her best friend, who was spread out on her family's living room couch with his head in her lap. His eyes were closed, so she wasn't exactly sure whether he had dozed off or not. She ran her fingers through his silky, almost black hair; his resulting smile was her answer. "You know I love it when you do that, little Val." He mumbled, eyes still closed.
"Not so little." The long limbed girl argued.
Rammer cracked one eye open and glanced up at his friend. "Littler than me."
"Littler?" Val asked cocking one eyebrow.
Rammer shrugged and snuggled deeper into Val's lap. Littler, smaller… whatever." Val shook her head and ran her fingers through his hair again. After a few silent moments Rammer reached up and laced his fingers through Val's. "Val?"
"Yeah, Mikey?"
"Come to Norway with me."
"What?"
Rammer sat up as he felt his friend's hand go slack in his own. "Come with me."
"I- Mikey-"
The big defenseman looked pleadingly at the golden haired girl. "Please?"
Val felt herself melt, she had never been able to refuse her Mikey anything when he looked at her that way. "Mikey… I want to, but I don't see how-"
"I've got it all figured out." Rammer said excitedly. "I've got enough to pay for half of the ticket and you can stay with me at our hotel, so that won't be a problem…"
Val smiled weakly at her friend "Mikey…"
"Come on, Val. I need you with me."
"I don't know how I'm going to afford tickets to the games at the rate I'm spending money on you Michael Ramsey."
"You'll come?"
Val nodded and allowed her friend to pull her into a fierce embrace. "I'll come."
Rammer kissed the top of Val's head, before resting his cheek on her hair. "I love you Val." Val felt her chest tighten at her best friend's admission. "You're my best friend, you know?"
Val tightened the hold she had about Rammer's waist. "You're my best friend too. Mikey."
Lisa Dean stood in the doorway of her living room; she leaned back as she felt her husband come up behind her. "They're so young." The matronly woman whispered. Frank nodded and placed an arm about his wife's waist. "She loves him."
The oldest Dean grunted. "Love?"
Lisa watched as the dark haired 19 year old kissed her daughter's hair and rested his head on top of hers. "Yep," she sighed, "love."
Her husband grunted again. "Could be worse, I guess."
Lisa reached behind her and patted her husband's cheek. "Come now, mi amore."
Frank sighed and let his wife lead him away, to leave his baby girl and her 'love' alone.
Ashleigh sat on the edge of her boyfriend's bed, watching as he packed. Well, attempted to anyway. "So…" she said awkwardly, "when are you coming back?"
Silk, to his girlfriend's dismay, tossed yet another slightly wrinkled, unfolded t-shirt into his duffle bag. The blonde finally gave up her nervous fidgeting and upended Silk's bag. The brunette grinned to himself and handed his girlfriend a pair of jeans as she began to fold his clothes. He kissed Ashleigh's temple and wrapped his arms about her waist. "Two, three days."
Ashleigh nodded and leaned into Silk's embrace, still folding. "I still wish I was going with you."
Silk kissed her temple again, but didn't say anything for several minutes. They had made up soon after their blow out several days before, but the memory of it was still fresh in his mind. "I know."
The two were silent until Ashleigh finished packing Silk's bag. When she did she turned around in her boyfriend's arms and laid her head against his chest. Silk rested his chin on top of her head. "I'm going to miss you.
"Me too, baby." He rubbed his hand comfortingly over the small of her back.
"When do you have to be at the airport?" Ashleigh's words were muffled, as her head was still buried in her boyfriend's chest.
Silk looked over at the alarm clock and grimaced. "An hour."
Ashleigh sighed, one hand absentmindedly playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. "We'd better get going then."
Silk nodded and kissed Ashleigh's forehead. It was going to be a long three days.
The airport wasn't as emotional as most thought it would be. A large majority of the guys were gathered around a rather lively poker game. Johnson was on a payphone, predictably. Ava and Bah and Ashleigh and Silk were too wrapped up in each other to notice much else. Marissa and Erin, who had become surprisingly close, were sitting with OC, Robbie, Buzz, and Jimmy. And Rammer and Val were standing with Val's family, trying to calm down Val's mom, who was frantic about having her baby so far away.
In fact, the 7 hour, 48 minute flight was more exciting. And once again Jannie was the main attraction. The goalie somehow managed to get himself locked in one of the plane bathrooms.
Much to the amusement of Val, Marissa, and the rest of the team it took the flight attendants a good half hour to get him out. They eventually had to unscrew the door from the wall of the plane and take it right off. The best part of the whole debacle was that when they finally got the door off Jannie was fast asleep on the toilet.
The rest of the flight went pretty smoothly.
"Alright!" Herb shouted above the din of the Norwegian airport. "Listen up! The girls," he motioned to Val and Marissa, "and Doc Nagobads have volunteered to take all our bags to the hotel and get all the rooms organized, while the rest of us get to the arena for practice! So drop your bags off with the girls and as soon as you've got your gear get on the bus!"
Luckily no one's luggage had been lost.
Val and Marissa winced simultaneously as Rizzo was upended on the ice. "Ouch." Val commented dryly.
Marissa nodded and glanced at the guys on the bench. She nudged Val and nodded towards them. "What're they doing?"
Val watched as Bah poked Verchota and pointed into the stands. "I'm not really sure, but whatever it is Herb's pissed."
Marissa watched as the coach glared at the backs of his players and then said something angrily to Coach Patrick. "Do you have the feeling that the boys have screwed up royally?"
"Huge." Val nodded.
"Think we should try to find the Doc?"
Val nodded again. "Oh yeah."
Val had tears in her eyes about twenty minutes into Herb's punishment. "They're dying out there."
Marissa nodded her agreement mutely. When the lights went out both girls heaved sighs of relief. "Thank God." Marissa muttered.
Then Herb ordered the boys back onto the line. "What does he want from them?" Val lamented.
Marissa patted the younger girl on the shoulder. "Why don't you go help Doc make up some more ice packs?" She suggested.
Val was going to argue, until Johnson threw up on the ice again. "Yeah… I'm just gonna go-"
"Come on guys," Marissa urged, once the other girl was gone. "He's looking for something…"
As if on cue Rizzo's voice filled the arena. "Mike Eruzione!" He spat, to clear his throat and catch his breath. "Winthrop, Massachusetts!"
"Who do you play for?"
"I play for the United States of America!"
Herb looked the team over. Heaving, panting, sweating, throwing up… "That's all, gentlemen." Marissa let out the breath she didn't even know she was holding and rushed out onto the ice.
"Jack!" She ran- slid- straight for her boyfriend, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." The blonde turned from her and spat on the ice. "I'm fine." Marissa laid a hand on his waist, and even through all the padding she could feel his muscles quivering. She was about to disagree with him when he nodded towards the blue line, where several of the guys were sprawled out, unmoving. "There's guys in worse shape than me."
Marissa nodded and kissed his cheek, ignoring the sweat, "Make sure you see Val or the Doc." OC nodded and skated wearily off the ice. She slid straight for a rough looking Janaszak. "Hey Jannie," She greeted. The goalie groaned, but didn't even bother lifting his head off the ice. "Let's get these pads off you, buddy." She struggled, but finally managed to get the pads off the uncooperative net minder. "Come on, Jannie…" she huffed, "Get up." When the goalie finally got off the ice she moved down the line. "Hey Kenny." She greeted a prostrate Morrow.
"And then we did Herbies for what Marissa says was an hour, but felt more like four days." Buzz said tiredly into the phone.
"Poor Buzzy." Erin soothed her boyfriend.
"It's good to hear your voice." Buzz said honestly. Erin smiled softly on the other end of the line. "I miss you."
"It's only been like 15 hours."
"I can't help it." Buzz shrugged helplessly. "We pretty much spend all our time together."
"I know. I miss you too."
Buzz cocked his head to one side as he heard the key scraping against the lock of the door. "I think your brother's back." He yawned, "Do ya want to talk to him?"
"Nah." Erin answered. "Tell him I'll see him when he gets back and then both of you get some sleep, okay?"
"Yeah. Love you."
"I love you too."
Buzz hung up the phone and looked over at Robbie as he flopped unto his bed. "Erin?"
Buzz nodded. "How's Johnson?"
The forward didn't even bother to remove his clothes as he slidunder his covers. He, along with Rizzo and Coxie, had been taking care of the weak center, who after the practice, the game, and the endless suicide drills, was in pretty bad shape. "Drank a lot of water, I guess his throat was pretty raw. Then after we finally got some aspirin down him he fell asleep."
"Good." Buzz said tiredly.
"Yeah."
After a few minutes of silence Buzz spoke up again. "I can't wait to get home."
"Me too."
