Save Me

I climbed the stairs up to my bedroom in a terrible mood. Practice hadn’t gone well. In fact Coach had kicked both Neal and I out and told us he’d deal with us later. I know I didn’t regret getting into a fist fight with Jordan and I don’t think Neal regretted hitting Geno either. Protecting Keeley was far more important to the both of us then our “friendship” with both boys. Between Geno and his girlfriend and the way Jordan was treating her, I was working damn hard on damage control. The last thing she needed was another relapse, and it seemed like she was well on her way to getting there. I just hoped I could prevent it. When I got to my room I found it empty and it was a bit surprising. Keels had been having nightmares so she was staying in my room, I didn’t have a problem with it. I called out her name and heard a muffled sound from the bathroom. The door was shut so I knocked and then opened it.
“Hey babe.” I said sitting down on the floor next to the tub she was currently laying in. She looked so cute with all the bubbles up to her chin. She sat up a bit and I wiped away the bubbles that had given her a slight beard. She giggled and I did as well.
“What happened to your hand?” She asked with a gasp grabbing ahold of my hand, taking a closer look.
“It’s really nothing, just had a little incident at practice.” I shrugged. She gave me a look, she didn’t believe me but she didn’t ask any other questions. It remained quiet between us for a few minutes before Keels cleared her throat.I opened my eyes and looked at her once again. She looked really nervous.
“What’s wrong?” I asked grabbing a towel off the counter and handing it to her. She wrapped it around herself and I helped her out of the tub.
“I uh don’t know if you’ve seen Twitter or not, but um, there’s kind of a tweet about how you’re uh dating…… Dating me.” The entire time she spoke she didn’t look at me. Instead her eyes were focused on a spot on the floor and she picked at the nail polish on her finger nails that was now in need of a touch up. I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.
“What are you talking about?” I again asked.
“I was talking to some of my friends from Chicago and while I was facetiming them Shawzie ended up tweeting that you and I were dating. My phone has been going off like crazy since it happened. I had to turn it off because of all the notifications. Look Sid. I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I know you like your privacy and…”She started to cry. I stepped closer taking her in my arms.
“Shhh. It’s okay. Shaw is an idiot and I’ll be sure to get him back on the ice. I’m not mad at all. Let everyone think what they want okay?” I said wiping away some of her tears. She wrapped her arms around me and I let out a small sigh. This girl was like a tornado, trouble followed her everywhere, but I loved her regardless.
“So does anyone want to fill me in on this new relationship you have Sidney?” I heard someone say as the door opened, revealing James Neal and Kris Letang. Keeley jumped at their sudden presence and her towel fell to the floor. I quickly shoved her behind me, allowing my body to cover hers. She grabbed ahold of the fabric on my shirt and pressed her body tightly into my back. I could feel the imprint of her breasts on my back.
“Woah, are we interrupting something here?” Letang asked with a smile. I imagined Keeley’s cheeks were about as red if not more red than mine. “I thought I was your lover boy.” He laughed trying to see the look on Keeley’s face. I moved so she was completely out of both of their sights.
“Boys, out. I’ll meet you downstairs in ten.” I said ordering them out.
“I bet I’m better in the sack than Crosby. Wanna try baby girl?” James asked winking at me. I quickly shoved him out of the room and quickly shut and locked the door. Keeley had the towel wrapped around her securely. I quickly hugged her and told her it was okay.
“You know, I bet you five years from now we’ll look back at this and just laugh.” I said as I wiped more tears away from her eyes. “I’ll go down and talk to the boys. You’re welcome to join us.” She responded with a slight nod and I left the room.
“Haven’t either of you idiots heard of knocking? Or better yet, calling before you come over?” I asked throwing a pillow at James.
“Ey! We did call. No one answered, so here we are. So you and Keeley huh? Geno is going to be pissed.” Letang said with a slight laugh.
“Why would Geno care? Isn’t he dating someone?” I asked sitting on the couch across from the love seat two of my teammates were occupying.
“You know he’s just with her so that he doesn’t think about Keeley, right? He thinks she doesn’t like him.” I scoffed at how stupid he was, as Kris continued. “He’s had more than a few conversations with me about it. Showed up at my house smelling like straight vodka more than a few times too. Even then all he talks about is how much he loves and misses her.” This time it was James’ turn to scoff. I rolled my eyes as I heard Keeley coming down the stairs.
“No more talk about him. Got it?” I harshly whispered, both boys nodded in response.
“Hey babe!” James said. Keeley nodded, still embarrassed about the earlier incident. “Hey, we didn’t see anything. It’s okay.” He said with a slight smile.
Keeley gave him a small smile and climbed up onto my lap, laying her head on my chest.
“How about we watch a movie?” Keeley speaks up. The boys agree and eventually pick out some horror movie. I think she spent more time with her head buried in my chest then she did actually watching the movie. Keeley got a little bit of teasing from us guys but she took it like a champ. She even had a few comebacks. For the first time in weeks I saw a real smile come across her face. James and Kris stayed for about an hour after the movie was over, but headed out claiming they were tired. Keeley had headed up to bed about fifteen minutes prior to their departure. I made sure all of the doors were locked, lights were off and the security system was armed before I went upstairs to my room. I had just finished brushing my teeth when I heard a knock at my door.
“Sid. Can I lay with you?” Keeley asked with a slight whimper. I nodded and watched as she crawled into the spot that had become hers within the last few weeks.
“You know, you should just start staying in here.” I joked with her. She giggled and smacked my arm.
“Sid, I want to go back to work.” She whispered, looking up into my eyes. I knew this day would come but I wasn’t expecting it to be now.
“I’ll talk to doc tomorrow and see what he has to say about it.” I saw a smile appear on her face. “I’m not promising anything, you know he wants you to take all the time you need.” I stated.
“Sidney, I can’t stay cooped up in the house all the time. I need to get back to work, it’ll give me something to do and it’ll be something to take my mind off of everything.” She sighed but I knew she was right.
“I’ll talk to doc tomorrow. I promise. I wrapped my arm around her pulling her closer to me. I laid there thinking about everything that had happened in the last few months.

“Doc! Wait up. I have to talk to you about something.” I said sprinting down the hall.
“Sidney, how very nice to see you. Everything okay?” He asked worry in his voice. I nodded.
“It’s about Keeley. She wants to come back to work.” I said my steps falling into pace with his.
“Ah, Keeley. How is she doing?” He asked rummaging through the folders in his arms.
“She’s bored at home.” I laughed. “I told her I’d talk to you about her coming back.” Doc smiled and pulled what I assumed was her file out. We stopped and he spent a few minutes reviewing it.
“Well I don’t see any reason why she can’t come back after our next road trip. It should be a good time for her to get back into the swing of things anyways.” I quickly thanked him and continued on my way back home.
Keeley took the news about returning to work quite well. She was contently jumping on my bed and making a complete mess of it. I laughed and pulled her down. She landed with a bounce and I lunged at her, landing halfway on her, tickling her.
“Sidney…… St-stop. I’m going to pee my pants.” She giggled.
“Not on my bed you.” I pulled her by the legs and gently tossed her over my shoulder. We were both laughing. She tried wiggling her way out of my grasp but it was no use. We spent the rest of the day just hanging out and watching movies. It was the most fun that I’ve had in a while.

***Keeley’s point of view***
Sidney and the team had left about an hour and a half ago, I dropped him off at the airport and decided to run a few errands. Sidney would be gone for about 28 hours in total. They played New Jersey tomorrow night and then would fly back home after the game. I was scheduled to pick him, Marc-Andre, and James up and drop them all off.
I decided Chinese takeout would have to suffice for dinner because I wasn’t really in the mood to cook anything. It was pretty pointless to cook for one anyways. I sat down with my dinner and turned the Chicago vs. Toronto. I quickly sent a text to Jonny, Kane, and Crow wishing them good luck and I wanted at least one goal scored for me. The first period went by pretty quickly, there was no score but both goalies were playing hard. We had 15 shots on goal and they only had 12. The second period mirrored the first. I was getting nervous now. I really wanted my boys to win. During the intermission I went and got a bottle of whisky from the cabinet and set it down next to my plate on the coffee table. I checked my phone and saw a text from Sidney.
“No alcohol while I’m gone. I’ll see you in about twenty six hours doll face.” God this man had to be a psychic. I typed back a quick response and put the phone down as the third period was starting. I said a quick prayer to the hockey gods and hoped my boys could pull off a win.
I don’t know how he did it but Kane managed to get the puck to slide past the Toronto goalie with two minutes left in the third. I jumped up off the couch cheering loudly. I was quite unimpressed when Phil Kessel managed to sneak one five hole on Corey. There was fifteen seconds left in the third and it was tied 1-1. My heart was beating fast and I was getting nervous. “Come on boys!” I whisper yelled to myself.
Patrick won the face off and passed the puck to Duncan, ten seconds left, Duncan passed the puck to Hossa who passed it to Jonny. There was three seconds left. Jonny shot the puck and it flew right over the shoulder of the opposing team’s goalie. My boys had just beat the Toronto Maple Leafs! I watched as Jonny pointed into the camera and winked. I knew he was doing that to let me know he had seen my text. I laughed to myself and laid down on the couch, waiting until Jonny could call. I guess I was more tired than I had thought because I woke up to the sound of the house alarm going off. I lowered myself onto the floor and grabbed my phone off the coffee table. I dialed Sidney’s number and quickly pressed send. I had no idea what time it was but I really hoped that he would answer.
“Hello?” I heard his sleepy voice.
“Sidney, the security system is going off and I’m scared.” I whispered into the phone.

Notes