It's Just A Job

After Katherine figuratively kicked down the door of Jenn’s office and read her the riot act and when it came to James and the media, she walked down the hall to the small office that she shared with Bill Guerin. She noticed Bill’s equipment bag shoved in the corner of the office by his desk and Katherine could tell by the smell permeating from the bag that Bill had been on the ice for a workout before the meeting. Katherine just sighed, sat down at her desk and placed her head in her hands, reminding herself that this was the career she chose. It was part of the territory and Katherine realized that. She lifted her head up and stared at the whiteboard that she and Bill used to track all the injured and movable players.

There were more names in red then in black, meaning that they would be making more moves before the day ended. Take the good with the bad; that was what this was all about. She stared blankly at the board, making mental notes to herself on a few of the players she had seen recently on a trip back to Wilkes Barre and it wasn’t until she heard Dan Bylsma make a slight coughing noise that Katherine realized that she wasn’t alone.

“Katherine, do you have a minute to talk?” Dan asked as he stood half-in, half-out of the office door.

“Absolutely, Dan.” Katherine said with a smile.

“Heck of a puzzle to try to solve,” Dan said while inspecting the white board of players names.

“Yea, I’ve been looking at the board and thinking about a couple of moves, but I wanted to talk to Bill about them first.”

“Katherine, you know that everyone here values your opinion,” Dan became a little hesitant on his next statement. “I need to know….”

Katherine curiously looked at Dan, wondering what it was he was trying to get at. She could feel it was more than just finding replacement players for the next few games for Brooks and James.

“You know him, pretty well.” “James.” “Probably as well, if not better than any of his teammates.”

“Do you want my opinion on how James will react tomorrow?” Dan shook his head in acknowledgement.

Katherine stood leaning against her desk, arms folded around her waist.

“I’m thinking Bettman will offer a ten game suspension, and James will lose his shit.” Dan just smiled and gave Katherine a chuckle. “But I’ll low ball Bettman down to three and hopefully it will only be five.”

“Dan, I’ll keep his head in this as best as I can,” Katherine said as she stood up and walked around to her desk chair. “It’s Nealer, I can handle him.”

“Good to know Katherine, good to know.” “You’ll let me know what is going tomorrow after the call?”

“Absolutely.”

“Thanks Katherine.” Dan started out the office door. “Hey, how is Paul?”

Katherine gave Dan a smile, “he isn’t Neal.” And with that exchange, Dan gave her a nod and left her office. Katherine turned and grabbed a small equipment bag from the floor and headed down the hallway to the ice.



Katherine sat on the players bench, just soaking it all in. The Consol was cavernous without all the cheering fans, but the emptiness had a peaceful feel to it. She took her boots off and put her skates on, carefully lacing each boot up so that they were snug on her feet. She looked down at the Bauer hockey skates that James had bought her in the spring after their slump busting romp in her office.

The skates were black and still looked just out of the box because Katherine only used them used them when she needed time to think, time to be alone, time to make decisions. She found her way through the bench door and out onto the ice. The hockey skates always felt odd to her since she had learned to skate on figure skates, but Katherine was able to skate around in a lazy figure-eight, gliding along the clean ice in a graceful motion. She increased her speed and let the wind blow her hair and for every thought leave her head. She moved to center ice and skated around the Penguins logo and then skated backwards to the double-attack end goal.

She thought of the night that James got his hat trick during the playoffs against the Senators and how they celebrated way into the early morning. That was the same night that they decided over tequila shots to see where all “this” was going and to take some time off together during the off season. The week at Balsam Lake was a turning point for them. So many different wants and needs separated James and Katherine from being together that summer and now everything that had separated she and James, Katherine had found in Paul.

Katherine skated around the goal and then back to center ice. She took one more turn around the Penguins logo and skated toward the goal at the opposite end. Her mind went to Paul and how he had become such an important part of her life, even though she never meant for it to happen. She thought about that first night that he walked her home from Local and how it was so easy and so comfortable. She and Paul had so many things in common, yet to Katherine it seemed like there wasn’t a day that went by that she wasn’t discovering something about Paul that made her love him even more.

She skated around the goal and then she took one last turn around the Penguins logo. She took one long look at the logo; the Penguins were her family now and she knew she had to protect everyone in her family, including James. With that, Katherine knew what she had to do the following day and she made her way back to the bench door and worked her way down the bench to take her skates off and call it a day.

Katherine needed to make quick phone call to Paul to let him know that she was done with the meeting and she would be heading back to her place to prep for Carb Sunday with Beau and Rob.

“Hey babe, how did it go?” Katherine could hear his smile through her phone.

“Nealer had to get his wings clipped, but if he behaves, everything should be ok.”

“Sounds like it went well.” “What’s next?”

“Bettman call tomorrow morning, James is coming to my office at 10:30, so I need to be in early.”

Paul and Katherine conversation turned to those of any normal couple. She asked about his upcoming doctor’s appointment and he asked what was on the menu for tonight.

“So, I should let you go so you can feed those boys.” Paul said with chuckle. He knew that Katherine loved cooking and the Sunday dinner was one of her favorite meals.

“You know, I still owe you a dinner,” Katherine noted, “how about Tuesday night?”

“Your place, I’ll bring the wine and hopefully we can celebrate a successful scan,” Paul offered.

“Only if you promise me one thing,” Katherine said with a flirty tone.

“For you, anything,” Paul wondered what itch Katherine was trying to scratch.

Almost shyly, Katherine made her request, “bring your jammies with you so we can have a sleep over.”

Paul laughed out loud and couldn’t help but think how much he loved her wicked sense of humor. “I think I can pack something comfortable that you won’t steal.”

“Kat, have fun with the boys tonight and I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Paul loved the ease at which he and Katherine could talk. “And Donnell…”

“Yes, Martin?”

“I meant what I said this morning.”

“And what was that?”

“Katherine Donnell, I love you.”

Katherine smiled and for a brief second, held her phone to her heart. She brought the phone
back up to her ear, “Paul Martin, I love you too.”

Notes