All Things In Good Time

Katherine found herself waking up by the gentle nudge from the flight attendant to let her know that they needed to prepare for landing. She handed her empty water bottle and napkin to the attendant, pulled the earbuds from her ears, set the seat back up and prepared to land in Moscow. As the plane descended, Katherine did a mental review of everything that had happened in the past 48-hours; the Pens had lost their last game before the break for the Olympics to the Rangers in a shoot-out, she said good-bye to all the players who would be heading to Sochi, helped Rob scour Target for sunblock for his trip to Mexico, took Beau to the airport so he could fly back to Southern California, and last but not least, answered a late night phone call from Ray Shero asking her to come to Sochi to replace David Poile on the US Olympic Hockey Team’s Staff after he was hit in the face by a stray puck.

The flight landed and Katherine and the rest of the passengers disembarked from the plane and made their way down the gate to their new destinations. Katherine had one more flight to take until she arrived in Sochi and she was grateful for the quick connecting flight from Moscow. She had already missed the Opening Ceremony while on the flight from JFK International to Moscow and jet-lag be damned, she wasn’t going to miss any of the first round of the hockey games. Katherine managed her way down the terminal to the gate where her flight to Sochi would be departing. With time to spare and a phone that needed charged, Katherine settled into a chair and retrieved her European outlet adaptor and plugged in her phone.

Once the phone powered back up, Katherine checked Twitter to see the highlights of what she missed from the Opening Ceremony and her now overflowing email inbox. There were a few messages from Bill Guerin regarding post-Olympic scouting trips to Wilkes Barre and Wheeling and a few others from work. She glanced through those emails and the subject lines, deciding to answer them after she got settled in Sochi. A few notices for text messages popped up while Katherine was checking her email and she decided to check on those. Two of the texts were from Rob telling her that he was in Cabo with a handful of other players. Rob wasn’t specific about who all was there, but she knew that there was going to be a good showing from the Canadians who weren’t going to the Olympics. She couldn’t help but wonder if anyone bothered to warn Mexico of a Canadian hockey player invasion. Another of the texts was from Beau giving her a shout out from an In-N-Out Burger. Her “brother” had found himself back home and happy in his SoCal element. Another was from Evgeni who was excited to find out that they would be drinking real Russian vodka in Russia and the last message was from Paul.

She knew how excited Paul was about making the Olympic team again. He joked that “third time’s a charm” since the previous two Olympics he had been an alternate for one and was injured for the other. Katherine ran her finger over the profile picture of Paul, a picture she took of him the day they went Christmas tree shopping, and with some hesitation she pressed the message to see what he had sent her.

Donnell, I hear that you’re coming to Sochi

It will be good to have another familiar face over here

A lot of the family is here and asked if you want to go see some sites with us

Text me when you get in

She was surprised at the text, actually happy that Paul would have reached out to her with the invitation to take in the sites with his family. Katherine had met Paul’s mother Beverly when she attended the Mother’s Weekend the previous season. It was before things got serious with Paul, but she always appreciated that Paul had introduced her to his mother. Paul always talked about his parents, sister and his extended family back in Elk Creek and how they always supported him in every sport he played and how they kept him grounded on the occasions when his success went to his head. Katherine always loved that quality about Paul, that he was always a small-town boy who loved his family. She was about to respond to Paul’s message when the boarding call for her flight came out over the sound system. Katherine unplugged her phone and tucked everything in to her carry-on bag. One last flight and two and a half hours and she would be in Sochi.


Sheer exhaustion hit Katherine and it hit her hard. She arrived in Sochi nearly 30-hours after she left Pittsburgh. After Katherine visited the check-in station at the Olympic Village and received all of her credentials, ID badge, room location and directions, she navigated her way to her room and nose-dived into the very thin mattress of the single bed where she would unintentionally spend the next four hours.

Pounding, who the hell is pounding on what?!?

“Katherine Donnell, it is KGB!” Katherine pulled her head off the pillow only to plop it back down again.

“Donnell, wake up.” “We know you’re in there!” Katherine opened her eyes to an unfamiliar site of a room with stark white walls and institutional furnishings.

“Sochi, I’m in Sochi,” Katherine thought to herself out loud.

“Donnell, wake the fuck up!”

Ugh, she knew that voice. Ironically, she knew she was about to threaten bodily harm to one of the top NHL defensemen who was use to inflicting such bodily harm.

“Shut the fuck up Brooks, before I come out there and beat the shit out of you.”

The pounding on the door was at a fever pitch now and there was no avoiding the idiots on the other side of the door. Katherine pushed herself off the bed and marched to the door.

Katherine flung the door open only to find Brooks, Sid, Olli and Geno in her line of fire. “Stop the shit, NOW!”

All four looked at Katherine and simultaneously busted out laughing like a gaggle of school girls.

“I hate all of you.” Katherine tried to grab the door to slam it in their faces when Geno pulled her in for a big Russian Bear hug.

“Dobro pozhalovat’ v Sochi,” Geno told Katherine as he released her from his grasp.

“When was the last time you slept?” Brooks asked.

“What day is it?” Katherine asked while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“Tuesday.” One of the guys replied.

“Last Thursday night was the last time I got more than a few hours.”

“When was the last time you showered?” Sid asked her.

“That bad, huh?” Katherine looked at her disheveled state. She had been on three different flights, one horrendously frightening ride from the Sochi airport, and was still in the same clothes from when she left Pittsburgh.

“A shower might not hurt.” Sid said with a smirk.

And with that, the guys decided to leave Katherine to get a few more hours of sleep, a shower and they would catch up with her later in the evening.

Notes