Always

This was the night Liz was dreading the most. She didn't want to go out with the rest of the team and a scattering of wives, not because she didn't have a good time with the guys, but because she knew that they knew her too well to not think sometimes up when she stays strictly on water. Her and Adam still hadn't told all of the guys that she was pregnant, they were waiting as long as possible before they would. She was happy that Katie was coming out with them, but she knew that she would be glued to Greg the whole night leaving her and the boys. She stood in the hallway outside the dressing room waiting for Adam to come out along with the rest of the team. Scrolling through her phone, she doesn't notice when the door opens and is startled when someone hip checks her slightly from her position on the wall. Looking up she sees Johnny standing there with a huge smile on his face.
"Hey Liz! Ready to have some fun tonight?"
She put on her best smile that she could muster up and nodded. "When am I not?"
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders pulling her in for a half hug. "That's what I like to hear! See you there!"
She let out a sigh once he was far enough out of ear shot and stuffed her phone in her pocket, praying that Adam wouldn't be too much longer. She perked up as she saw the door open, but noticed that it was Greg and Tyler exiting the room together.
"Lizzie!" Tyler somewhat yelled as he headed towards her and engulfed her in a bear hug. "Unleashing the inner wild one tonight? It's been way too long since I've seen her!"
She chuckled and diverted her gaze to Greg who was standing slightly behind Tyler at that moment. "We'll see, the night is young."
"I'm taking that as a yes! No practice tomorrow, so that means it's time to get messy and reunite the Lizzie Ty duo!"
Greg could see her growing more nervous the more that Tyler continued on, so he stepped forward and clapped his hand on Ty's shoulder.
"You know, that sounds more terrifying than anything, there Segs."
Before he could say anything Brad had jumped on his back, mirroring the excitement that Tyler held about their night out.
"Hey Liz! You joining us this fine evening?"
"Yep, I'll be there."
"Perfect!" He hopped off Tyler's back and slapped his arm, "come on man, you can talk to her there, let's go get some well deserved beers in us!"
That offer sounded enticing to Tyler and he happily obliged, starting to follow Brad and yelling to Liz. "See you there Lizzie! Bring your drinking pants!"
As they walked off Greg took Tyler's spot by her side. "I'll try my best to keep them somewhat tame when it comes to you tonight."
She smiled an appreciative smile up at him, she was glad that she had Greg and Katie on her side. "Thanks Greg, you might have your hands full with that though."
He chuckled as he saw Katie approach from behind Liz. "That's why I brought backup." He said as she came up to his side and he wrapped his arm around her waist.
"Backup?"
"Yeah, we've got to try to keep Segs and Marchy and their alcohol away from Liz tonight."
"Oooh, yeah that's no problem!" She smiled a warm smile at Liz. "How are you doing anyway?"
Liz shrugged. "So far so good. We can talk about that later though, you guys should go enjoy your night." She didn't want to bring down the mood of the night by discussing the details.
Katie reached out and grabbed Liz's hand giving it a squeeze and dropped it starting to guide Greg towards the exit. "Okay, we'll see you and your man there!"
She chuckled, "Yeah, if he ever comes out!"
"Comes out of where?"
Liz jumped, not hearing Adam come up behind her. "Jesus!" She turned to face him, covering her chest with her hand.
"Nope, just me. Close though." He said with a sarcastic smirk plastered across his freshly washed face.
She swatted his chest and took a deep breath. "You scared the shit out of me."
"So…. we should get you a change of pants first?"
She looked up at him with a deadpan expression. "Har, har, har."
He chuckled and leaned down pressing his lips against hers. "I know, I should have went into comedy."
A small smirk started to grow on her lips and she shrugged. "Meh, you would have just gotten by on your looks."
"Oh yeah? Better keep a tight leash on me then, when all the other ladies find out they're gonna flock."
She chuckled and wrapped her arms around his waist, "I'll beat them all off with my massive stomach I'll have by the time they realize." She winked up at him.
He leaned down and kissed her once more.
"You ready to go?"
She sighed and dropped her arms from around him.
"Ready as I'll ever be!"
He reached for her hand and laced their fingers together as they headed down the hall.

Less than half an hour later they both walked through the doors of the bar that the rest of the group had chosen for the night. They had been here before, and Liz smiled slightly as she walked in and up to the VIP section where the rest of the team was sitting. As they walked up the stairs she heard Adam's voice in her ear.
"Last time I was here I took some hot chick home with me."
"Oh yeah?" She smirked up at him, "She any good?"
She started up the stairs that led them to the booth section the rest of the Bruins were in, and Adam followed a step behind her.
"Amazing, actually." She felt him kiss the back of her neck as he wrapped his arms around her waist when they reached the top step.
She smiled to herself and leaned her back into his firm chest. As they approached the table, Tuukka was the first person that they saw. He looked up as they approached the group and raised his eyebrows with a smirk.
"Well aren't you two just adorable."
"We like to think so," Adam responded as he let go of her waist and leaned down to her ear.
"I'm going to get drinks."
She nodded and sat in the empty spot beside Tuukka as Adam walked away.
"How's it going Lizard?"
She chuckled at his ridiculous nickname for her that he came up with after the first time they met.
"Good. Nice shutout tonight. Who knew you were good enough to beat Lundqvist." She smirked as she nudged him in the ribs. They had played their game that night against the Rangers and it was definitely a hard fought 3-0 win by all, but she couldn't help but poke fun at the young goalie.
"Surprised the shit out of me!" She chuckled as she saw Adam approach with a glass of water in one hand and a beer in the other.
She smiled as he handed her the water and sat on the other side of her. She sipped on her water and set it on the ground under the bench as she saw an already tipsy Tyler approaching her.
"LIZZIE!!" he yelled as he made his way over to her. He wedged his way in between her and Tuukka and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
"You made it!"
"I did indeed." She chuckled as he placed a sloppy kiss on her cheek. This wasn't an abnormal occurrence for him to do while drunk, but she still felt Adam tense slightly on the other side of her.
She placed her hand on Adam's thigh reassuringly as she continued to talk to Tyler.
"So how far in are you buddy?"
"I don't even know, girls just keep buying me shots and I just keep taking them!"
"Well lucky you mister superstar!"
"I'll buy you a shot Lizzie! You need to catch up to me and March."
"I'm good right now, but I'll take you up on that later."
"Come on! You're not even drinking!"
She grabbed Adam's beer from beside her and held it up in his face.
"Am too!"
"Oh! Good! But beer isn't nearly good enough for the whole night, so you owe me a shot later, okay?"
She chuckled and agreed with him to settle his mind.
"Good! Come find me later for shot time!"
She shook her head at him as he pushed himself up off the seat and made his way back to the other side of the group. She turned back to Adam.
"You know you don't have to sit with me all night, right? You can go have fun with your friends."
"I know, but-"
"No buts, I'm driving tonight so go have a little bit of fun after your win." She leaned up and pressed her lips to his softly. "Go."
He pressed another kiss to her lips before grabbing his beer and heading over to where Johnny and Milan were standing doing some sort of drinking game and she smiled as he started to join in and relax. Looking down at her empty glass she decided that she was going to go and get herself another water. Sitting down at an empty seat at the bar, she asked for the water and waited as the bar tender grabbed a bottle from below the counter and placed it in front of her. She smiled at him and cracked it open taking a drink. She wanted to go back up and have fun with the rest of the group like she had in the past, but tonight it just felt different. Probably because this time she had a secret to keep, and she never really liked keeping secrets. As the thoughts ran through her head she failed to notice someone sit at the empty seat beside her at the bar.
"Drinking water alone, at a bar. Interesting anomaly." The deep voice beside her startled her out of her trance and elicited a chuckle from her.
"I guess you could say that." She turned to get a better view of the new visitor and her eyes slightly widened as she saw it to be no other than the Rangers goalie, Henrik Lundqvist.
"And I could say the same thing about you. Hotshot goalie sitting by himself at a bar avoiding the throngs of adoring girls? Don't see that too often."
He chuckled and leaned a little closer to her.
"I'm not alone now am I?"
"Not in the literal sense of the word." She took a sip of her water as she shot him a challenging look. She didn't mind him sitting there with her, but she was sure that if any boys of the black and gold caught sight of it she wouldn't get off so easily.
"I can't imagine that you're here by yourself? No man in his right mind should let a beauty like you be in a bar alone."
She chuckled to herself lightly, finding the smooth way he phrased his compliments to be quite amusing. She looked over at him and noticed the perfectly pressed suit that he was wearing. No doubt there was a reason why they called him the best dressed man in the NHL. But she also thought to herself as she took him in that she was pretty sure he was married. Flirting with a lonely girl in a bar while married? She didn't see him as the guy who found a good time on the road, but you never know.
"You've got a way with words, don't you?" She played with the rim of the bottle.
"I just speak the truth."
The smoulder on his face was almost enough to make her give in, but she glanced away smirking.
"Don't act like you don't know you're too charming for your own good, Hank."
"So you know my name."
She gave him the nicest condescending look she could.
"You're in a hockey town. You really think people don't know who you are?"
"Not girls who don't seem to want to give me the time of day."
"You-"
She was cut off by her name being called across the bar. Turning towards the direction it came from she noticed Looch and Thorty heading in her direction, the looks on their face definitely not the friendliest.
"We've been looking for you." Shawn said as Looch continued to stare down Hank. She knew this wasn't going to end well considering the known rivalry that was between both of the represented teams.
"You didn't tell me you were with the Bruins." He said from beside her, starting to pull away from her.
"You didn't ask."
"Adam's been worried about you." Looch finally had diverted his attention away form the other man and looked at Liz, the look in his eyes was unreadable and that worried her slightly. Just as she was about to turn to get up and head back to the rest of the group she noticed Adam standing at the top of the stairs leading to the VIP section, his gaze focused right on her. She saw him mumble something to himself, shake his head and then turn and storm off back to the group. She slid off the stool, grabbing her water bottle and glancing at the two bruins before her before starting towards the stairs with a sigh. She knew he was drunk, which foremost meant that he was going to take it wrong seeing her sitting at the bar with Hank. It also meant that he wasn't going to listen to reason.
She had made her way up the stairs and headed over to the group just in time to see Adam doing a round of shots with Brad and Tyler. She stood there waiting for the clapping from the group to die down and for him to turn around and notice her. Just as he put the shot glass down he turned and noticed her standing there, arms crossed.
"Really, just get more piss drunk? 'Cause that's gonna help."
She didn't care that they were standing in the middle of everyone and apparently he didn't either.
"Might as well, since you're off trying to fuck Lundvist."
"You don't even know what happened down there!"
"I know what I saw Liz, and you two looked pretty friendly!"
"Yes, I'm pregnant with your child so let me just go sleep with half of Boston and any NHL players who are currently in it!"
The words were out of her mouth before she realized that they were still surrounded by the guys.
"You're what?" Drunk Tyler spoke from across the group as he broke the silence that had fallen.
"I'm pregnant. There, you all get your answer about this?" She said as she thrusted her water bottle towards the group of staring eyes. She couldn't take the mixed stares coming from the group or the silence among them so she shook her head, turning.
"You know what, I can't." She started to walk away from the group and Adam grabbed her arm turning her towards him.
"Where are you going?"
"Home, away, I don't know, anywhere but here." The tears were starting to pool in her eyes. She could see the anger that was still in his eyes from the earlier scenario and instead of trying to be rational with a drunk Adam, she ripped her arm from his hands and started towards the door.
Adam stood there staring at her, a flood of emotions coursing through him. He was pissed that she had left to apparently go flirt it up with their rival team, but he hated to see the look of sadness in her eyes that he saw as all the guys stared them down. He felt a body push past him and looked down noticing that it was Katie heading after Liz. On her way by him she looked up at him with a look of anger on her face.
"Really?"
Her tone was biting and that was the moment that he knew he had handled this all wrong. He never did well in these situations sober let alone intoxicated and he didn't want this one night to ruin anything between them. As he started to follow in the girls path he felt an arm grab his shoulder.
"Don't man." He turned noticing Greg standing behind him, shaking his head lightly. "Just let Katie handle it."
"But-"
"Trust me. Let her handle it. You need to sober up before you do anything."
He nodded in agreement with his teammate.
"How about we get you home then?"
He nodded again and both men started towards the stairs leaving the rest of the group still stunned from the previous confession. He wasn't in the mood to go back to the group and explain anything right now so he decided that would be better left for another day. On his way down the stairs he saw Lundqvist in the same spot he held before when he was talking to Liz. Veering off the path that Greg was taking he headed over to him as he was sitting at the bar. He wasn't happy that a guy on his rival team had been flirting with his pregnant girlfriend and he was definitely going to let him know that. Closing the space between them Adam drew back his fist and punched him square in the jaw. Seconds later he felt two arms grabbing him and pulling him back, just as he turned to see that it was Greg he felt a fist connect to the side of his face. Suddenly the area got louder and crowded with more members of each team trying to pull their respective players off one another. Adam was slipping out of Greg's grasp as he tried to get at Hank and suddenly Greg was backed up by Johnny and Shawn grabbing various limbs trying to get him away from the scenario. When they had finally pulled him outside Johnny took a look at him.
"What the fuck man?"
"He deserved it." Adam said as he spat blood on the sidewalk.
"He might have deserved it but it doesn't mean you go after him with no warning." Thorty cut in, noticing the cut on the side of his lip causing the source of the blood.
"He shouldn't have been talking to her." His voice, thick with intoxication, got quieter as he said it.
The four men stood there quietly as they watched him wipe the blood from his face.
"You should have told us Quaider." Johnny spoke.
"Should have done a lot of things, Boych, but I didn't."
The group left his comment as it was and Greg was the one to finally break the silence after a few moments.
"You guys wanna help me get him home?"
They all agreed as they called a cab and gave the address to Adam's building. The ride was a quiet one all the way until their destination, as the guys were getting him inside, a tired Dougie appeared in the kitchen.
"What?"
"Just go back to bed Doug." Johnny shook his head and Dougie shrugged following his command, it was too early to be dragged into any of this.
As the guys got him into bed he looked up at Greg.
"I fucked up. She's gonna hate me. I'm never gonna get to see my baby."
It was hard to not laugh at him being that his voice was so thick with drunken slur it was almost hard to understand him, but as his mother had always taught him a drunken mind speaks a sober heart. It would be impossible to think that neither Liz or Adam were worried about their situation, but he knew you would never hear Adam admit to it. Right now though was a different story, this was his way of being scared and probably would be the only time any of the guys would see it rear its head.
"Just go to sleep buddy, you can talk to her in the morning."
With that reassurance, Adam closed his eyes and went to sleep.

The next morning Liz woke up and could already feel the headache she was going to have from crying herself to sleep the night before. Katie had reassured hr time and time again the previous night that he wouldn't have said any of that shit if he was sober, and she knew that too, but it still hurt to hear it from him. She looked at her phone and saw that she had no texts or calls from him and sighed. She ran her hands thoughtlessly over her stomach as she analyzed the scenario from the night before. After a few minutes she heard a knocking on the front door and got out of bed to investigate. Looking through the peep hole she saw Adam, looking like a complete mess, standing on the other side. Liz opened the door, her face still puffy from the insane amount of crying she had done the night before.
"Hi." Adam said shyly.
"Hi." She responded, her voice trying to stay firm. She looked over his face and her resolve suddenly crumbled as she took in the massive bruise forming around his eye and the swollen cut on his lip. She instinctively reached her hand up and lightly brushed her fingers over the bruised area.
"What happened to you?"
"You don't want to know."
She pulled him in by the arm and shut the door behind him, pushing him into the kitchen where he sat on one of the kitchen chairs.
"Why don't I want to know?" She asked as she turned on the light to take a better look at his face, she noticed him wince at the brightness.
"It wasn't one of my better moments."
She scoffed as she walked over to the kitchen drawer opening it and grabbing the first aid kit they kept there.
"Last night in general wasn't one of your better moments."
He looked down at the floor at her comment, but when she walked back over to him she put her finger under his chin making him look back up at her. He looked into her eyes but she wasn't looking at his. She was examining the cut on his lip.
"You've got me there."
"So, what did your drunk ass do?"
"Beat up Lundqvist."
She sighed, shaking her head, but continued to work on his face.
"Asshole."
He wasn't sure who she was directing her comment towards, so after a small pause he asked, "Who?"
She had finished putting a butterfly bandaid over the cut on his lip and backed away from him looking at him with raised eyebrows.
"You. Are you going to go picking fights with every guy who talks to me for the rest of our lives?" She crossed her arms and stared at him.
He ran his hand through his hair and sighed.
"No, but this was different-"
"How? How was this different from any other guy trying to flirt with me in a bar?"
"It was Lundqvist!"
"Your point?! He still didn't deserve to have you beat the shit out of him!"
He went to say something, but decided against it and sighed, dropping his head into his hands and rested his elbows on his knees. Liz's heart dropped at the sight of him so defeated and walked over to him grabbing his arms and pulling his hands away from his face replacing them with her own as she sat on top of him straddling his legs.
"I get where you're coming from. But do you get where I'm coming from? This isn't going to work if you don't trust me not to jump every guy that tries to flirt with me."
He moved his hands to rest on her hips but was silent, just staring up at her.
"I love you. And I know that we're suddenly this crazy situation that honestly neither of us were prepared for, but we can make it work. I love you, and only you, do you believe that?"
He nodded in response and she ran her thumbs over his cheeks.
"Then there's no reason for you to act like you did last night."
"I know." His voice came out quiet, and she knew there was more on his mind. "I'm sorry." He rested his forehead against hers and she closed her eyes momentarily enjoying the contact. She opened her eyes again to see him with the same look of conflict his face held before.
"You wanna tell me what's going on in that handsome head of yours?"
He sighed and reached up grabbing her hands off his face and lacing their fingers together.
"I know I was a dick last night, but I saw you with him and my mind went crazy. It's not that I don't trust you, but I guess I just thought maybe you'd go for a guy like him because this situation is so messed up. And then I just got angry because I don't want to lose you. Then you walked away and I got scared because I don't want to lose you," he reached a hand down and placed it on her stomach, "either of you."
She leaned down and captured his lips with hers. "You're not going to lose us."
He looked up at her and his eyes held a slight tinge of hope that hadn't been there before and she kissed him again.
"I mean someone's gotta go get me weird food in the middle of the night when I'm 8 months pregnant and full of cravings." She chuckled and he leaned up to kiss her.
"I guess you're right."
She released his hands and ran her fingers through his hair, stopping her hands at the base of his neck.
"I love you so much. Just remember that next time you want to go psycho on some guys face, okay?"
"What about on the ice?"
"Oh, on the ice you can go as psycho as you want baby." She smirked and he chuckled pulling her lips down to his.
"I love you, Liz."
"Love you hotshot."

Notes

More drama! Hoorah! (But I always fix it for you guys, you should know that!)

Thanks to everyone who helped out with the makings of this idea, and I hope that the suggester of the rangers is a happy little camper after reading this! You guys are FANTASTIC!

So, I hope you enjoy it! Comment, subscribe, rate, whatever you want to do !
But ten bonus cool points for everyone who comments. :)