Peter’s POV:

I didn’t have the heart to wake her when we landed, so I asked Pricer to get my stuff for me (“Pricey, grab my shit.”) and carried her to the bus. She did wake up on the bus though, and turned into Sleepy Lizzie, the Lizzie that needed a few seconds to register anything; the Lizzie that looked like she was gonna fall asleep at any minute; the Lizzie that had the cutest drowsy face.

Glad I didn’t say that out loud; the boys would have a field day.

I could see the looks they gave me whenever she did something adorable, which was all the time. Coming up to me randomly for hugs (she said I gave the best hugs, suck it Prusty). Asking me endless questions on the plane or after practice because she was so damn curious about everything. Sometimes just smiling up at me as I held her hand for no reason. I asked her once and she told me ‘Sometimes I just can’t believe this is real.’ I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I just gave her a hug, followed by more knowing looks.

While I didn’t openly gush about her, they knew how much she had me wrapped around her finger. Hell, she had the whole team under her thumb. The guys couldn’t say no to her. She had something special which each of the guys; her and Gally seemed to be laughing at everything, she liked playing cards with Gio, had Danny and Davey teach her French words, watched Max battle on his PSP. She was always there after a game, to celebrate a win or just be a cute little distraction after a tough loss.

I looked down at her now, folded in my lap, a sleepy look on her face. She was staring across the hall, and I knew she was thinking about the dream. I purposefully shifted a bit, and she blinked, shaking herself from her thoughts. She looked up at me for a minute before sighing and putting her head on my shoulder again.


******************************


She walked on her own to the room, almost tripping on her way out of the elevator. I tried to hide my laugh at that, but she still pouted anyway, smiling a little despite herself.

I opened the door, and her bag hit the floor first, then her head hit the pillow. Her shoes came off, but then she just lay there. I sighed, tugging on one of her feet.

“No, c’mon Lizzie, you gotta change.” She grumbled, but rolled over and sat on the edge of the bed, digging for pj’s.

“I’m gonna take a shower before bed.”

She looked up at me quickly and stiffened a little bit, and I caught the fear in her eyes before she looked away.

“O-okay.” Was all she said. It made her sound so much younger than she was. “Lemme change first.” She tried to make her way past me to the bathroom, but I stopped her. She refused to look at me.

“I won’t be long, promise.” I said, tilting her chin up so she would look at me. She did, and there was still hesitation in her eyes.

“I know.” She tried to assure me. “It’s…fine.”

Definitely not fine. I thought to myself. “Why don’t you go watch a movie with the Gallys?” They were right across the hall, and I figured by the time I showered she would be, hopefully, passed out. Her eyes lit up a little at that; they got along well. Kids gotta stick together, I guess. I let her change, and I texted Gally.

- Lizzie’s coming over, try to get her to fall asleep
= we’ll do our best. what happened??
- Had a nightmare, no idea what it was about, but she started crying. broke my heart a little
= ur such a fuckin sap old man
- and ur a little shit :-)

I smiled at my phone and tossed it on one of the beds. Lizzie popped out from the bathroom with one of my long-sleeved t-shirts and shorts. The kid’s door was already propped open, and she made her way in the room. Hopefully the Gallys were enough distraction from the fear I saw earlier.


***********************************


= she’s out.

The text from Gally came in about an hour later, as I was in the middle of an article. About Lizzie. There were quite a few, and they were all different, in terms of what people thought of the adoption and how she meshed with the team. The one I was now reading was on NHL.com and titled ‘Thief.’ I wasn’t actually searching out articles about Lizzie, but the title caught my attention. The beginning was how she stole the NHL’s heart and pretty much ran away with it. It was amazing to me how obsessed the league was with her. There were a lot of quotes from players, being asked what they thought about the adoption.

They had some references to go off of, since the guys (mostly PK) and HabsTV uploaded pictures and videos of Lizzie on roadtrips and stuff. Most of the videos were taken when she wasn’t even paying attention, like the first time she beat Gio in Texas Hold ‘em, or when she spent half and hour learning French from Danny and Davey before getting bored. PK even caught the time that she beat Prusty at his own game and floored him. Most of the pictures were of her making weird faces, putting bunny ears behind someone’s head, or asleep. The quotes were something I knew she would love reading.

Crosby – “I thought it was really neat, what he did. She seems to fit right in with the team, and everything, so I think that’s good. Just, seems like a really cool girl.” Careful as always I thought to myself.

Kesler – “Oh I think she’s great. So much funnier than Juice over there. She could probably beat him up too.” “Yea probably!” Bieksa in the back. “She seems really cool. Almost all the guys here love her. We quote her a lot.”

Kane – “She’s hilarious. I’ve read all the quotes from her, like, when she’s in the locker room just messin’ around, and yea, she’s a riot.”

There were many more, but when the text from Brendan came in I abandoned my reading and crossed the hall. I peeked into the room, which was only lit by the bathroom light.

All three of them were crammed onto one little bed, Lizzie in the middle. She was tucked up against Chucky, while Gally was working on extracting himself from the comforter. He was the only one still awake. He stood and looked over at me, pointing at the bed.

“I didn’t really want to disturb that so….good luck.” I laughed quietly.

“Nah, I’ll leave her. You think Chucky will be okay tomorrow?”

“Oh yea, she won’t bother him.” Brendan scoffed, “Sleeps like a rock anyway.”

“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Night.”

I backtracked to my room and got comfortable. Well, almost. It was weird not having her next to me like usual. The bed felt a little cold. I toyed with the idea of going back and waking her up, but it didn’t take me long to decide against that. A different thought popped into my head, and I picked up my phone.

- take a picture of them
= LOL already done

I smiled at my phone before rolling over and eventually falling asleep.

Notes

sorrysorrysorry

lots of life has happened. lots of thinkin. the climax of this story has been changed completely in the month i have been gone. it will be gooooooood

still very sorry for the wait, but i love comments <3