Forever and Always

Madeline left her and Aaron's house earlier that morning then usual, she left him a message that she was getting to the rink early. She felt since she had come home for the summer that her energy had been on everything else but hockey. And she couldn't let hockey be on the back burner at the moment. Every day was another day closer to training camp and that scared her shitless. She was lacking in the gym, and being lazy on the ice. If she was going to make the Leafs out of camp, she needed to prove the coaching staff that she was reliable and someone that wouldn't be hurting their chances when she was on the ice, but someone who was only helping them.

She laced up her skates just as she had done so many countless times before and skated onto the fresh sheet of ice. She worked on her stick handling, running drills she used to run out on the pond her father used to make for them in the Markham winters when she was younger. She would instantly drive home from school, and slip onto the rink before having to go do homework. It had only been a handful of years, but Madeline could feel that 15 year old full of life, love and joy slip away from her. She was beginning to harden, as her career began to sky rocket. She needed time to slow down, let her digest everything that was hitting her at maximum speed. Like her now being Aaron's fiance.

She remembered the day she called up her mom, at 17 telling her she was done with Kelowna. She couldn't be so far from home. The boys treated her unequally, and the owners were getting pissed at her for slipping under the pressure. They had bended rules for her to play in the WHL, when if would every play juniors professionally should have been playing in the OHL. But no OHL team wanted to touch her. She could hear the conversation she had with her parents like it was yesterday.

"There's nothing here for me. School sucks, I have like zero friends, Tyson is in the AHL now and icing me out. The Rockets treat me like I am some puck slut instead of their teammate. Mom I want to come home!" Madeline was sitting, crying in her bedroom at her billet parents house. She wanted to pack her shit up, and take the next plane out of British Columbia to Toronto ASAP. "Honey, you are a Gilmore. Gilmore's don't give up. You are so good. More then good, you are a natural talent. Don't let the haters get through you're tough skin. Brush yourself off and get back on that Kelowna horse. It's March. You have the playoffs, the memorial cup, you have things to look forward to. Then you will be home for the summer. Good you're father just came home from the East coast. Hold on, let me put him on.

Madeline's roommates Shane McColgan and Myles Bell walked in a that exact moment. She curled up in a ball. "Gilly you K?" She nodded. "Okay." Shane nodded in her direction. Myles just gave her a half smile in her direction. "You coming to team dinner tonight? And then I think we're going to hit up one of the bars. We can get you in." She shook her head. "I am okay. I may be doing something." Moving out, she thought to herself. "With Brett Lyon." Brett had just been trading from Moose Jaw and he was the only one being nice to her other then her roommates and lineys Shane and Myles. "Alright Mads." Myles muttered. "Did you do the English homework?" Shane asked. "Yeah the sparknotes are in my backpack." She motioned to the Navy north face sitting next to her desk. "Thank. You. Gilmore. Lifesaver on and off the ice." That made her smile. "How is my beautiful, darling daughter." Madeline heard her dad's voice waft through her iPhone and she wanted to cry. "I am okay." By her tone, he knew someone else was in her room now. "I won't let you come home Kiddo, squirt you need to ride this out, or one day you will regret it, and resent me for letting you make this big choice without thinking it through." He used both his nicknames for her. He meant business. "But dad!" She sounded bratty but she didn't care. "No kiddo. I mean it. I'll be in Kelowna soon scouting, I'll see you then. I love you squirt, hang in there. And kiddo, I'll leave you with this to get by. Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game, and never looked back. Play for her. No one else. Understand me?" She wanted to cry and vomit at the same time. "Yes daddy, I understand you." She was stuck in this god for saken place. Stuck in the boondocks of British Columbia. She couldn't wait to get back to Toronto in June and stay there forever.

"What are you thinking about?" A voice had taken Madeline out of her thoughts. A familiar voice. Aaron. She turned to face him. "The day I called up my parents and told them I was leaving Kelowna." He smirked at her. "If you left you wouldn't be here today, with me. About to play for the leafs." She nodded. "I know. I just feel my old stubborn, hard working, self righteous, bitchy, high self esteem self slipping away and I don't even recognize myself anymore. Maybe we shouldn't get married. Aaron, maybe we're too young. I don't even know who I am!" She whined. "We love each other, we have time to figure ourselves out. We'll do it together. We're our own team Mads." She nodded. "Now let's go get ready for training before Gary kicks our asses." She obliged skating off the ice with him. "Oh Mads?" She looked over at him. "Yeah?" She held the door to the locker room for him. "Don't ever lose the stubborn, hard working, self righteous, bitchy, high self esteem Madeline Gilmore. Because that's the girl I fell in love." She smirked. She loved him.

But she felt herself slipping away as she got more closer to her goals. And she didn't know if she could hold onto that girl anymore. She was becoming more and more Aaron Ekblad's fiance everyday, the girl behind Aaron with a wicked slapper. Not Madeline Gilmore, the prodigy. And that scared her way more then anything else.

Aaron walked into the locker room, as she stood back and stared at the beautiful ice for a couple seconds longer then she wanted. "It better be worth it." She muttered to herself.

"Don't worry when you lift the cup on top of your head, it is." She turned around to face Tyler Seguin. She thought she was the only one here, but she could see the guys file into the locker room in front of her. "I hope so."

She looked back at the ice and whispered to herself "Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game, and never looked back. Play for her." Those were the words her dad told her that day, and she would be reminded of that quote every day closer she came to fullfiling her dreams.

She walked into the locker room and stopped in her tracks. "Hey guys you might know my teammate Tyson Barrie. He's joining the Roberts training crew." Matt Duchene said. Aaron looked at her with a devilsh glare, she could feel his body temp heating up from across the room. Tyson sat there with a grin on his face. Satan was pushing himself back into her life. But she wasn't the same person Tyson had deserted when she was 16, almost 6 years ago. "Well hello there Madeline." Him saying her name, made her skin crawl.

There was nothing short of drama in Markham.

Notes

It's really short. This is kind of a fill in chapter, but I haven't posted in a while and I have some ideas of where this is going, so stay with me! This story is kind of all over the place at the moment.