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"I'll see you on Monday." I said kissing Shayne on the cheek. "Mommy," Cody said crying pulling at my leg, "Stay Mommy" he said as I bent down to kiss him. It was mid May, the Blackhawks season had once again, abruptly ended. The Blackhawks wanted to fly all the mothers to New York, for a conference with other pregnant mothers. That meant Patrick would be alone, with three kids, for almost four days.

"We'll be fine, right guys?" Patrick said looking back at the boys, as he held Emily tightly.

The taxi beeped from outside, I kissed Emily on the head, and then Patrick. "Remember her naps at 9, you have to change her every two hours," I said walking towards the door, "And Cody will only wrap his hockey stick with green tape, but Shayne will only use blue."

"Kylie" Patrick cut in, "relax, we'll be fine." We kissed quickly and then I was off. This should be interesting.
...
Patrick's POV:
The boys stared at me blankly, "So" I said, "What time is practice?"

"Twenty minutes." Shayne said.

"What?!" I yelled. "Go get your stuff!" I yelled running to get Emily's jacket.

"I don't wanna sit there!" Cody yelled as I strapped Emily into her car seat.

"Cody we don't have time for this! Just get in the car!"

We sped off the rink, and made a short sprint into the lobby. I put Emily's baby seat down next to us and furiously tried to dress the boys, shortly later Seabs came running in with Carter.

Before he could say anything, Duncan came running in the door with Colton and his bag.

In ten minutes I had both kids dressed and on the ice, well, I thought, how hard could this be? I spoke way too soon.

Halfway through practice, Shayne came running off the ice, "Dad I have to pee." He said, "Cant you hold it?" I groaned.

"Kaner he's 3" Seabs said.

"Alright!" I groaned, "Can you watch her?" I said, getting up to bring Shayne to the bathroom. When I came back out, I saw Cody on the bench with a coach holding a towel over his face.

This can't be good. I thought.

I walked over and returned Shayne to the ice, "Hey Dad." the coach yelled, "next time we gotta snap the cage alright?"

In all the rush I had forgotten to snap one side of Cody's helmet. When he fell his cage flew up, leaving his face wide open and he caught a stick right above the eyebrow.

"eh, forty minutes in and you already injured one" Keith said slapping me on the back.

"Haha" I laughed sarcastically, sitting back next to Emily's baby seat, in the stands.

The practice ended, and Cody came off the ice sporting a nasty cut over his left eyebrow. "Hi Dad" he said jumping onto the lobby bench. "Hi Code, how's your head?"

"Good I look like Shawzie!" he said excitedly. Seabs, Duncs and I laughed. I peeled off the boys equipment off.This way going to be a long weekend.

Kylie's POV:

The plane touched down in New York, and I missed my babies more than ever. Dayna, Abby, Kelly-Rae, Niklas Hjaalmarsson's pregnant wife Elina, and I headed down the terminal to see a man waiting to drive us the the hotel.

The other wives, chatted on and off, they were excited, a part of me was. But a bigger part of me would rather be at home, with Patrick and the kids.

I couldn't help but wonder what they were doing, I wasn't worried about the kids, I knew Patrick could handle it. But a part of me was worried about Patrick and how he would handle, trucking kids back and forth from practices and games, while dealing with a four month old baby. I wasn't even use to it yet. Was it really fair that I had shucked all three kids of on him, and taken off to New York for the weekend?

I had to turn my attention to the list of questions we had been given to go over. I was not in the mood for this, my mind kept floating back to my babies, and my husband.

Patrick's POV:

"Shayne!" I yelled from upstairs, "Come get in bed!" It was almost ten o'clock, about two and a half hours past the boys bedtime. He came bouncing in the room a few minutes later, Cody was already passed out. It had been a long day, after hockey I shuttled the boys to sports store to get their skates sharpened, and then to lacrosse practice, then home to do homework, then to Seabs for dinner, than back to hockey for another practice. All of us were beat.

I passed out only to wake up three more times that night for Emily, before finally passing out in a chair in her nursery.
...
I woke up around seven am, to the sound of Shayne taking slap shots downstairs.I got up from the chair, Emily was standing in her crib, two hands on the railing. "Daddy!" she yelled. My heart melted, seeing her pretty, sweet little face, happy, made the long night, on the uncomfortable chair worth it. "Hi Em!" I said picking her up out of her crib.

I changed her diaper, and dressed her. She giggled and squealed as I tickled her stomach. I carried her downstairs and sat her in her high chair next to Shayne and Cody, "Can we call Mommy?" Cody asked as he stuffed cheerios in his mouth. "When your done." I said.

"Done!" Cody and Shayne yelled pushing their bowls away, "done" Emily repeated pushing her bowl on the floor and laughing. I laughed, and pulled out my phone setting it on speaker, I dialed Kylie.

"Mommmmmmy!" they screamed into the phone. "Hi guys!" she laughed, damn it felt good to hear her voice. She talked to the kids for a few minutes before I picked up the phone.

"Are they behaving?" she asked,
"Of course." I said, "so what are they making you do?"
"oh just answer questions about the kids, normal stuff, I miss you guys." She said,
"we miss you too, like alot."I said, every time she laughed it brought a stupid grin to my face.
'Kylie, come on!" I heard someone yell in the background.
"oh I gotta go! I love you kiss em' for me." she said.
"I love you to, and you know I will." I said, it panged me to hang up the phone, but there was a long day of things to get to.

First, I had to take Shayne and Cody to the doctor for a physical.
...
"Cody! Put that down." I said trying to be quiet, as Cody picked up a stethoscope that sat on the doctors table. It seemed like we had been waiting in that room, for hours while the doctor finished up weighing Shayne in the other room. I bounced Emily up and down on my knee, it was way past her nap time and she was getting restless, fast.

The doctor came back in with Shayne sucking on a lollipop. "his heart beat is a bit irregular," the doctor said, "i'm going to start him on this medication." he handed me a yellow piece of paper, and I thought nothing of it, my mind was too clouded with all the things we still had to do.

Next we had to go grocery shopping, I tried to make the trip as fast as possible.The boys grabbed and picked at things the whole time. I practically ran the cart out of the store, we only had ten minutes to get across town to the United Center. I had a meeting with one of the assistant coaches, and I had no choice but to bring all the kids with me.
...

"Awwww look its Mr. Mom" he said as we walked into the office, "Whats up guys?" he said fist bumping both boys. "hi Mr. Scotty!" they yelled from the hallway, where they were running up and down.

"Look Kaner I know your busy, I just need you to take these plays home and look over them." He handed me a stack of paper and we were on our way, "Thanks coach" I said as I walked out.

"Shayne get off there!" I yelled watching Shayne about to go three floors down in the escalator.

Next stop was lacrosse practice. Of course, to add to the stress of today, Shayne forgot his helmet, sending us all the way back home to get it and causing us to be late. "Let's get em' here on time Dad" the coach said as I pushed them onto the turf.

I rolled my eyes, well, when you have a four month old, two two years olds, and you've been running all over for Chicago all day, let me know if you're still on time, I thought.

I sat in the stands and watched as the practice went on, I could barely keep my eyes open. I watched as Duncan Keith ran Carter onto the field ten minutes late.

"Running late?" I asked yawning as he walked into the stands, "This sucks." he said, falling back on the bench.

"Yup, sounds about right" I said. This did suck. We had been running around all day, it was like the kids were with me, but we weren't getting to hang out. Emily started crying as I held her on my lap. I bounced her up and down.

"Home" she yelled as she squealed and squirmed in my lap.

The boys came off the field and hour and fifteen minutes later holding a schedule of tournament games. Ugh. I thought. Two more days.
...
Kylie's POV:

"My question is for Kylie,what's it like raising three kids alone?" a short, dark haired woman asked from the audience. I was taken back by the question. "I'm certainly not doing it alone" I said, looking at the rest of the wives who seemed equally shocked by the woman's abrasiveness, "Although all our husbands have demanding jobs, they always put their families first. Patrick is a huge help, I am definatley not doing this on my own." I said, trying to smile. The more I thought about the question the ruder it seemed.

I wasn't liking the convention so far. They had the five of us lined up in chairs on stage, each holding a microphone. Instead of asking us about our lives as mothers, the women seemed to be interrogating us about our personal struggles behind the scenes of motherhood, and none of us were appreciating it. You could tell by the look on our faces, we were not enjoying this.

"I also have a question for Kylie," a short, blonde and pink haird, pregnant, teenaged girl stood up , smacking her gum. "So, Shayne is like really good at hockey and stuff, and Cody like isn't, are you gonna like not let him play, since his brothers better?"

Are you fucking kidding me? She did not just say that? I did not change my facial expression at all. I had to stay calm, and speak my mind but do so with class.

"Cody and Shayne are currently both excelling in hockey. They have both found a way to shine in different aspects of the game. I don't compare my children to each other and I would appreciate if you didn't do so either." I said sharply, never taking my glare of the woman.

The room erupted into applause taking me off guard. I hate this. I thought, I want to go home.


Patrick's POV:

I carried the Shayne in from the car, and straight into his bedroom. Both boys were exhausted. I laid them in bed. Emily had napped in the car, she wasn't ready for bed yet.

The two of us sat together on the couch. She was curled up on the couch, her blonde hair was getting long and soft pink lips moved up and down as she blabbed to her teddy bear.

"Daddy?" she said looking at me, "You read to me?" she said handing me her favorite story book, "Butterfly Kisses" I started reading and eventually the two of us fell asleep on the couch, her curled up in my lap, with both my arms entangling her.
...
The next morning, the kids woke up early to make a sign for Kylie. They posted it in the front window, it was a big white sheet of paper, with all three kids hand prints, and "Welcome home Mommy!" on it in big, colorful letters. "Pretty!" Emily yelled pointing at it in the window.

It was a Monday morning, and the boys had to be hockey practice. I loaded all the kids and their gear into the car. Kylie would be home around one, and I wanted to make sure we were back on time, and clean.

The practice seemed to drag on and on. Sitting here the past few days, made me start to wonder was it worth it? I mean they're three. My doubts were quickly wiped away when I watched the boys beaming faces come off the ice. They had the passion, it was engraved in their souls, and that was something that would never leave. Once hockey gets in you, its in you for life, it becomes a part of your soul, your personality, the boys were hockey players, and they were in it for the long run. I looked down at Emily, if she was anything like Kylie, she would have the passion too, and it would be fierce. People were so focused on the mother side of Kylie, they often failed to realize that she had graduated as the top athlete in her class, Captain of her women's hockey team, and shattered multiple records while she was there.

The four of us headed home, with a new bounce in our step, Kylie would be home soon.
...
Kylie's POV:
I practically ran off the plane and down the terminal. I couldn't wait to get home. The whole ride home all I though about was Patrick and the kids. It had only been four days, but it might as well have been a lifetime. My babies were four days older, four days bigger and it had been four days since I had kissed Patrick. It seemed like being away was more painful than being home, while Patrick was away.

As soon as I walked through the door, Shayne and Cody came flying at my legs, "MOMMY!" they screamed.

Patrick came over, Emily in hand and kissed me hard, "How did it go?" I asked, as he wrapped an arm around me.

"Please don't ever leave again." He laughed.

Notes

Can we just imagine Patrick and a little girl? So cute! Do you guys like the way this story is going?