ok I'm finally back! Sorry for the long wait- I blame the last week of classes and finals coming up. I apologize for the last chapter- it just needed to be done- I hope you're not too mad at me for it! ;-) I've worked really hard on this chapter but still feel as if I haven't gotten it completely right yet so I'm might be updating it a little in the next few days… Most of the country stuff is right but I made stuff up about the war/fighting. Thanks for all the reviews 3 them…

It was a really awkward rest of the week; I really did avoid Dave for the rest of the week and Jack too for the most part. After a therapy session with Dane I ran back to my dad's desk next to Herb's office. I handled a bunch of stuff other than just helping out my dad, so I shared that desk with him and was just running by to pick up a file. A note caught my eye. It was actually an envelope that had my name sprawled on it. I opened the note inside of it and it read:

Dear Haley,

I'm so extremely sorry for what I did last Wednesday. I never meant to hurt you, words can't even begin to express how truly sorry I am. I drank too much at the bar that night, not that it's an excuse for my action. I even told Jack that I only wanted to kiss you; I never ever meant to hurt you in any way. I hate the fact that you don't look at me the same way you did before all this. I miss the way you look at me, and the way that you seem to fit so perfectly in my arms. I miss the way you bite your lip when I kiss your neck. I think you are the most beautiful person I've ever met and hope that you can forgive me for what I've done…

Dave

I stood there for a minute with the note in my hand. The truth was… I really did miss him. I put the note back in the envelope, and then put it back on the desk. Herb wanted me out on the ice to scrimmage in the afternoon so I suited up. It was a one-on-one drill, using the full rink to shoot against Jimmy and Janny. Johnson and Rammer went against each other, Johnson got the score, and then after them Jack scored on Billy Baker. Buzzy and Robbie went against each other, Rob made the point. I was waiting for Herb to call out the next two player, and was spacing off when I heard, "Silky and Haley!" My heart felt like it was in my throat, my eyes grew wide. I put on my helmet and gloves and then picked up my stick. I stepped out on the ice, and felt two things, 1) I wanted to kick his ass 2) I was sure of myself at all. That all quickly changed. I couldn't even look him in the eyes; I just glanced at the ice and Herb as I went to the middle of the ice.

"Oh man, this is going to be good." Jack said, still trying to catch his breath from his match up with Baker.

"Why?" Robbie asked.

"Just trust me on this one Mac…" Jack said tossing him a water bottle.

"You ready Silky?" Herb asked.

"Yes," He replied.

"Haley…?" He asked as I just stared at the middle ice.

"Are you ready Haley?" Herb asked me, I nodded my head and then he threw down the puck. I threw my shoulder into Dave, and he took it, while he easily could have pushed me off. I took the puck and made him play defense on me. I shot but Janny deflected it. I got to it and went around the goal; I flung it around the wall so I could get Dave off of me. This back-fired on me, seeing as we both got to it at the same time.

"Don't take it easy on me," I said as he jammed my shoulder against the wall.

"Because I'm a girl," I added, trying to shrug him off.

"I'm not taking it easy on you because you're a girl…" He slammed my entire body against the wall.

"I'm taking it easy on you; because of what happened last week." He said letting off a little. I elbowed him in the nose, and pushed him to the ground.

"Don't take it easy on me… especially because of that." I told him. I strolled away with the puck, and started back at the goal. Dave came out of no where and stole the puck from me. We continued to fight back, skating the entire length of the rink several times; still both of us had energy to hold out for longer.

We were both panting still fighting out to see who would score. Silky was playing defense on my once again, and tried to steal the puck by trying to fish out the puck, but ended up sticking his stick in between my legs. I tripped and fell oddly, on my back and stayed down. I lay on my back, panting, with tears coming to my eyes, but not because of the pain. He made the shot against Jimmy, but when he noticed I was down, Dave came back over. I pushed myself up; he grabbed my armed and helped pull me up.

"Don't touch me!" I warned, jerking my arm away from him.

"Jesus Haley, I don't know how else to say I'm sorry!" He snapped.

"You don't get it do you? I trusted… I trusted you." I raised my voice at him, I threw my stick and gloves at him. I started to skate away, when he caught my arm and spun me around to face him.

"Haley I'm sorry… ok?" He said, holding the arm he had spun me around with.

"Damn it, at least look me in the eyes Hails," He told me. I shook my head no.

"Get off my Silky." I demanded, panting, completely out of breath.

"Don't do this in front of everyone. Get.off.of.me." I panted. I pulled my arm away from him and sprinted (as much as I could) off the ice. I threw my helmet in the bleachers and quickly ran to change. I grabbed my car keys and literally ran to my car. Tears were streaming down my face by the time I got to my car. I turned on the ignition and just put my head on the steering wheel, crying. The sound of a door shutting made me jump. I came face to face with Dave. We just stared at each other, in pure silence. He reached towards me, and I leaned against the door, he shut off the ignition.

"Haley I'm so sorry for everything I did that night. I was looking forward to seeing you that night; I had flowers on my bed to give you. I just wanted to kiss you, it was like I couldn't control what my body was doing. I knew it was wrong, and what my brain was telling me to stop, I couldn't do it." He explained.

"I have problems trusting people like this. I trust a lot of people, but when it comes to my sexual life, I have a really hard time with it. And when you did that I was so scared, I really thought something bad was going to happen, luckily Jack stopped you. But what happens if Jack isn't there next time? What if you can't stop yourself? What if I can't stop you?" I asked. I could tell he was thinking about it.

"I'll stop drinking, that way I won't ever get like that again…" He said. I stared at him.

"Would you really do that?" I asked him.

"If it means having you back in my life, yes." He answered.

"I miss the way you fit into my arms, when I hold you it's like nothing in the world can go wrong. When you kiss me it can make me weak in the knees." He admitted.

"Dave…" I sighed; he wiped a tear away from my face.

"We may have only been friends with benefits, but you can make me melt with one flash of your smile and when you kiss me right behind my earlobe, I have to go take a cold shower. You've made me feel things that not even my ex-girlfriend made me feel in three years, and I've only known you for a few months." He said.

"I would do anything to have you back in my life; we can just be friends if that's what you want but…" Finally I couldn't take it anymore and I pushed him against the window and kissed him, my hands holding his head. I pulled away from him, he was shocked.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"We can be whatever you want, friends or friends with benefits…it's up to you." He said.

"No. Not about that. I can't go back to practice." I said.

"It'll be too weird and I would have to explain my actions to Herb, Craig and my dad… let's go back to my apartment," I suggested, he agreed.

We got to my apartment and then the two of us sat on the couch in silence.

"Tell me more about you Hails," He said.

"What do you want to know?" I asked as he had started to kiss my neck.

"What was Latvia like?" I pulled back from him.

"What? Did something bad happen when you were there?" He asked me.

"It was great being there. But I almost didn't get out. Latvia is still technically part of the U.S.S.R. It's not safe in certain parts of the country. And with bad relations with the United States I'm scared that someone's going to say something or do something to me. I have dual-citizenship but because I was there for so long I really believe some of the things that they believe over there. I almost feel like I was brainwashed, that's what my dad was scared about too, but he'd send me a letters and newspapers telling me what was going on, and it's like I'd just snap out of it." He was rubbing my thumb.

"Tell me about where you lived." He said.

"I live with my aunt, uncle and their kids. They live in the capital, well at least what we called the capital, Riga. During the summer we'd go to the Gulf of Riga, which actually flowed into the Baltic Sea. There was a war to try and gain independence, but the U.S.S.R didn't see us as a threat they're more concerned with America and the arms race, like they are now. Latvia isn't that big, it's about the size of West Virginia." I stated.

"Do you speak any other languages besides Latvian and English?" He asked.

"Yes, I'm actually multi-lingual." I said; when I saw his look I smiled.

"That means I speak several languages." I laughed.

"I speak English, Latvian, Russian, then in high school here I took Spanish, and I started to learn Swedish while I was there." I told him.

"You're amazing," He said under his breath. I smiled at him.

"I want to be just friends," I told him. He looked me in the eyes, his eyes were so blue.

"But I can't." I said, after a long breath. He looked down at the ground, disappointed.

"I can't be just friends with you, I should but I just… I can't." I added.

"Why not Haley? I want to be friends with you, if anything just friends." I never realized how much he wanted just to be with me until then.

"I just want to be around you. If that means hanging out with the guys, and giving you time to still forgive me, I guess I'll just have to do that." He said getting up to leave.

"No Dave. I can't just be friends with you." I pulled him down. I pushed him down on the couch and kissed him. He was shocked at first but then wrapped his arms around me, as I was now lying on top of him.

"You're too much fun to kiss," I whispered in his ear.