Crossing the Line

When the final horn sounded Logan and Jackie jumped up from the couch and started to sing Dirty Water, their puppy yipping and jumping excitedly. “Jacqs will you be a love and take him out? I have to do the last prep work for dinner tomorrow,” Logan said giving her roommate her best puppy dog eyes. “You’re lucky I like you so much and he’s so easy,” Jackie said grabbing a leash and calling the dog to her. “Seriously though, do you worry that he’s plotting against us or something because training him has been too easy,” Jackie said leaving Logan with words to ponder while she took the dog out. Logan laughed to herself and moved around the kitchen. Jackie had a point, the dog was too easy; they had had him for two weeks and not once had he tried to go the bathroom in the condo, bark when he wasn’t supposed to. He even picked up on training quickly and already learned to sit, stay, lay down, and he could almost fetch. Logan just shook her head; their puppy was just awesome that was the only explanation for his oddly easy behavior. Before she could forget Logan texted Tuukka to congratulate him on his 4-1 win and being named the third star. After it was sent she connected her phone to the iHome and went back to finishing the last of the prep work.

“What time is everyone coming tomorrow?” Jackie asked making Logan jump, she hadn’t heard her come back. “Fuck,” Logan cursed under her breath holding a hand to her heart and a knife in her other hand. “I get out at two so around four,” Logan said once her heart rate had slowed to a normal pace. Jackie nodded her head and looked at the organized chaos in front of her. “What exactly are we having?” she asked curious. “Individual chicken pot pies,” Logan told her going back to cutting the vegetables. Jackie laughed and shook her head. “You’re making individual chicken pot pies for everyone coming?” she asked laughing harder when she realized Logan was serious. Logan just huffed but didn’t dignify Jackie with a response and continued to prepare her vegetables. “Do you want me to cut the kitchen?” Jackie asked grabbing a knife; she knew cutting meat freaked Logan out. “Thanks,” Logan said and the two prepared the dinner for their house warming party in silence just listening to music. “OMG,” Logan said with a straight face turning to Jackie. “This is my JAM!” Jackie exclaimed putting the knife down and getting prepared to dance with Logan. “Stacy can I come over, after school,” Jackie sang into a wooden spoon. “After school,” Logan sang her back up. They sang and danced around getting ready for their big moment when the chorus came on. Just before the chorus the music stopped and Logan’s phone started to ring. “Are you fucking me!” Logan yelled stopping mid song as Jackie went to see who was calling. “It’s your boy toy,” she said taking the phone out of the iHome and answering it. “You should know that you just ruined our Stacy’s Mom routine,” Jackie said before passing the phone along to Logan. Logan just laughed and took the phone from Jackie before she decided to harass him more. “Hello,” Logan said stifling her laughter. “Every time I talk to Jackie I get the feeling she doesn’t like me,” Tuukka laughed making Logan smile.

Logan left the kitchen and walked into her room, flopping onto her bed to talk to Tuukka. “It’s not that she doesn’t like you it’s just that you have horrible timing,” she said playing with her necklace. She had found it in her clutch along with a note from Alex saying he still wanted her to have it; it was so pretty she found herself wearing it every day. “But really, you played so well tonight,” Logan smiled into the phone. Tuukka just laughed and accused her of changing the subject. When Logan didn’t deny it he laughed harder. “Stop flirting!” Logan heard someone yell in the background. “Who’s teasing?” Logan asked wondering if she could double team. “It’s Sveddy. These fucking back ups think they’re so funny,” Tuukka said and Logan could almost hear his eyes rolling. “Don’t hate on Sveddy! I love you Sveddy! You’re my favorite Bruins goalie!” Logan yelled into the phone and could hear him laughing in the background. “Logan,” Tuukka whined into the phone, “Now he’s going to think you like him more and I’m just going to have to listen to how he’s getting special dessert tomorrow.” Logan just laughed and told him that was his problem. “When are you getting in?” Logan asked curious as when she’d get to see her best friend. “We’re leaving in about an hour and it’s not a super long flight so I guess I’ll be in Boston within four hours,” Tuukka said knowing what she was going to ask next but making her say it anyway. “I don’t suppose you want to come sleep here with me and the pup? Jackie took an over night shift tonight so one of her friends could celebrate her anniversary,” Logan said. Tuukka laughed and started to tease Logan about missing him after only a few days. “Shut up, maybe I just want to see my best friend and take advantage of John Whitesides’ hard work,” Logan said making him snort with laughter. “Alright I have to finish getting ready for tomorrow I’ll see you when you get here Scandinavian asshole,” Logan said hanging up.

Alex got home from work and started his nightly routine. He grabbed a water bottle and a beer from his kitchen before firing up his laptop. While he waited for his laptop to finish automatically refining his audio he went across the hall to his dark room. Alex couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his when he realized that his photos had developed. Slowly and carefully he took the pictures out of the solution and hung them up around the room to watch the pictures appear on the photo paper. He smiled when the pictures from her out to dinner and then dancing with him at the club appeared before his eyes. The pictures that his friend took of them dancing were such good quality, he could see everything in perfect detail. Every curl on her head, every inch of skin revealed by her tiny dress, and even the chip in her tooth. After admiring his handy work for a little while longer Alex went to listen to the audio the locket had picked up since he last listened. Taking a long sip of his beer Alex raised his eyebrows when he heard Jackie and Logan going over the guest list for their house warming party. Pausing and rewinding the audio Alex grabbed his legal pad that he used to make notes on the audio and started to copy down the guest list. “Molly Schaus, Meghan Duggan, Julie Chu, Chanda Gunn, Kelsey Sullivan, Chelsea Goff,” Alex muttered to himself as he wrote. He paused and looked at the names he had written. Some of them sounded familiar so he decided to google the first few. Alex laughed when saw that they were Olympians and realized what Jackie and Logan meant when they said their girls from the team. Taking another sip of his beer Alex chuckled and realized that they hadn’t told anyone about just how good they were at hockey.

“Jackie will you get the door!” Logan hollered from the kitchen as she pulled the potpies out of the oven. “What are you chirping?” Jackie asked walking into the condo flipping through the mail. “Oh I thought you were someone important,” Logan said with a shrug. Jackie scoffed and muttered thanks. “Hey we have a letter from my brother,” Jackie said opening the envelope with excitement. “Is it tickets? It better be tickets!” Logan said jumping up and down clasping her hands together. “It’s two tickets to their game in Boston in December and there’s a note that we can’t go out with the enemy after because we’re having family dinner. Oh they sent Cam a ticket too,” Jackie said with a grin. She never got to see her brother and couldn’t wait to hang out with him. Their moment was interrupted by the arrival of the first of their guests. “Cam! Did you get your letter?” Logan asked hugging her brother as if she hadn’t seen him months when it had only been a day. Cam laughed and hugged her before moving to hug Jackie. “Yes I got the letter but if you don’t want the goons to know just yet then you should put them away because they pulled in right after me,” Cam said motioning to the tickets in Jackie’s hand.

“Hi puppy!” a voice said from the doorway. Jackie and Logan laughed, they were thrilled to introduce their new buddy to the team and couldn’t wait to see the heart attacks they all would have over his name. “What’s his name?” Reilly Smith asked walking into the kitchen followed by a gaggle of Bruins and girlfriends. Logan looked at Jackie and let her do the honors. “That’s Tazer,” Jackie said in a casual manner and felt the hockey players in the room give her an odd look. “You named your dog after the enemy?” Brad Marchand asked taking the puppy out of Reilly’s hands and putting him down. “You could look at it that way or you could say that German Shepherd’s are often police dogs and the police carry Tasers,” Logan said struggling to contain her laughter. “Don’t let her fool you, they named the dog after Jonathan Toews. I quote when I tell you this, they named him that because he’s such a goof ball when it’s just them but he’s a serious little bugger when there are people around and constantly thinks someone’s trying to start something,” Tuukka said coming into the kitchen and helping himself to a beer. “Is it in there?” Brad asked in a stage whisper. “Alright shoo! Go socialize! I have more guests to great. Leave Tazer!” Logan said using her hands to wave them all out of the room. The wives and girlfriends stayed in the kitchen laughing with Jackie and Logan. “How have they not met Tazer before today?” Katie asked bending down to pet the puppy she had fallen in love with. Mel laughed and bent down drawing Tazer’s attention to her. “I know you two bring him everywhere,” she said looking up and accepting the glass of wine Jackie handed her. “Wait let me guess, Cupcake Red Velvet?” Katrina asked, Logan’s laughter answered her question. “I know you said not to but I brought dip,” Tatiana Chara said as she and Zdeno walked into the kitchen after letting themselves in. “That’s so sweet of you,” Logan smiled swapping the dip for a glass of wine and saying hello to Zdeno. “The guys are in the living room and drinks are in the fridge, please help yourself,” Jackie said gesturing as she spoke.

“Alright I know special dessert is in this place somewhere,” Brad said to the guys standing around him, most of whom just laughed at his need to know what it is. “Brad, I couldn’t find it and I looked while she was at work today,” Tuukka said making everyone scoff. “You probably looked in the most obvious places. We all know you would never find out what it was before Logan wanted you to,” Cam snorted and Milan made the sound of a whip. Tuukka tried to protest but got told to shut up as Brad went back to scheming with Reilly and Torey. “Idiots, you’ll never find it, she’s too good for you,” Adam said rolling his eyes as Dougie offered to go distract them. “You can’t distract the entire kitchen. There’s about a dozen of them plus the dog,” Greg pointed out and got flipped off. Cam just laughed and went to get another drink followed by Tuukka.

“They’re looking for special dessert,” Cam announced walking into the kitchen and having everyone look at with wide eyes. “Brad’s just upset that he hasn’t had special dessert other than that time he was shit faced,” Logan said calmly brushing his words off. The room laughed and Cam noticed there were a few more girls here than when he left the room. “Hey Julie, Chelsea and Meghan,” Cam said with a smile offering each a hug. “Oh how rude!” Logan exclaimed moving from her favorite spot in the kitchen over to Tuukka’s side. “Tuukka this is Julie, Chelsea and Meghan, we all played hockey together. Ladies, this is Tuukka one of my best friends,” Logan introduced pointing to each girl in turn. “Nice to meet you,” Tuukka said shaking hands with each of them trying to figure out why they looked familiar. “Can you do me a favor and tell Brad I didn’t even make dessert because I didn’t I totally forgot,” Logan said and Tuukka knew she was serious. “I’ll pass the message along,” he smiled down at her and went to tell Brad.

“Have I met Julie, Chelsea and Meghan before?” Tuukka asked grabbing a pair of his sweatpants out of Logan’s drawer. Logan looked at him for a moment leaning against her doorframe brushing her teeth before moving. “They were my teammates,” Logan said with a shrug holding out her hand. Tuukka tossed her his shirt and pulled his sweatpants on. “At Northeastern?” he asked walking by her to brush his teeth in her bathroom. Logan sighed and crossed her arms studying him. “I played with Chelsea at school, and the other two we played together in Vancouver,” Logan said kicking herself. She knew shouldn’t have invited people from her past life to meet people from her present life. She liked to keep them separate since her two lives were so different. Tuukka noticed her change in demeanor but he was still curious. “When did you play in Vancouver?” he asked still brushing his teeth. Logan counted on her fingers to make sure she had the year right before answering. “We played in Vancouver together in 2010. Hand me my face cloth please,” Logan said starting to wash her face beside him. Tuukka paused for a moment his brows furrowed as he thought about Vancouver in 2010. “Wait, weren’t the Olympics in Vancouver?” he asked everything falling into place in his head. When Logan didn’t answer he swore in Finnish. “Logan Elliot, are you trying to tell me that you played with them in the Olympics in 2010?” he questioned looking down at her. Logan didn’t answer but kept rinsing her face. The wheels in Tuukka’s head kept turning. He tried to think about the women at the Olympics in February. “Julie Chu and Meghan Duggan were in your kitchen tonight,” Tuukka stated finally suddenly feeling a little star struck. “In the flesh,” Logan said with a shrug turning and heading out of the bathroom. “Wait a second Logan,” Tuukka said placing a hand on her shoulder. “If you played in the Olympics in 2010 why didn’t you play in 2014 and more importantly why didn’t I know about this?” Tuukka asked, the hurt easy to read on his face. Logan’s eyes softened and she put her hand on his face, her thumb smoothing out the worry lines. “I was different then. I lived for hockey then and I’m different now. I like to keep who I was and who I am separate. But just so you don’t find out by googling me, I have a bronze medal from Italy too. But that’s it, I’m just a nurse now and I like it that way,” Logan said her eyes begging him to understand and forgive her. Tuukka placed a kiss on her forehead and pulled her in for a hug. Standing against his chest Logan felt him shaking and looked up to see him laughing. “Your tramp stamp makes sense now,” he said chuckling his fingers tracing the infinity symbol with four numbers around it. “My number, the years I won and Jackie’s number. Hockey sister to infinity and beyond,” Logan smiled at him before burying a yawn in his chest. Still laughing at the red head in his arms Tuukka picked her up and carried her to bed. “Oh Logan,” he sighed as she got comfortable on his chest his arms still wrapped around her.

Notes