'Sutton'

Thursday afternoon, after sleeping most of the day away recharging my battery from the hellacious 48 hour shift I had just worked I stood in my closet trying to piece together an outfit for the Hawks game. Team gear wasn't exactly frowned upon in the WAG box but when everyone else looks like a supermodel you sort of want to dress a little nicer to blend in. Finally deciding on some leather leggings, red tank top, and a white and black plaid over shirt and some black booties I felt stylish yet comfy. Well except for the heels, those still suck compared to the Nikes I normally wear at work! Nothing compares to the comfort of scrubs and tennis shoes, total doctor perk!

On the concourse of the United Center I find Dayna and Abby Sharp, both with babies or rather toddler's on their hips, "Look at you hot stuff!" Abby chirps and shush her as I wave at Madelyn and Sadie.

"Are you guys going down to the glass? Or have you already been?" I ask as Carter leaps into my arms. "Hi buddy," I giggle trying to contain the tot.

"We've already been down, guys are super focused tonight not really that much fun. We were just waiting on you to arrive, and take my kid off my hands." Dayna laughs and I tickle Carter, "Fine by me, I'd rather play with yours then have my own."

When we make it up to the box all of the other girls have assembled in a sea of designer clothes and diamonds bigger than I could ever dream. I remember the first time I walked into the suite and how nervous I was to meet these ladies, but it was all for nothing. For the most part they're all really great women with amazing stories, adorable kids, and husbands who may have one of the coolest jobs in the world.

The first to greet me is Jonathan Toew's girlfriend Lindsay, and her hands immediately fly to my hair, "Girl we have got to get you to the salon, your roots need me!" she rakes her fingers through my mess of waves and I shake my head free from her. "Yeah, yeah I know! I'm a little busy Linds, unless you want to pop out a baby Tazer and visit my office it's going to be a few weeks!" She backs up hands in the air, "I'll pass on that for now, have you met Jon? No babies anytime soon." We both giggle and I make my rounds through the box, wife after wife catching up and meeting some of the new faces as well.

The game begins and for the most part we watch and I get to see every Blackhawk baby I have delivered in the last 4 years. As they get older they want to know who I am and it's just easier for their moms to call me "mommy's friend" than to explain that I'm just the doctor who gave them life. Maddie Sharp, the eldest of the kids who calls me "Utton" always asks who my boyfriend is and never believes me when I tell her I don't have one. Had she of been able to talk 3 years ago when she was born that question would have had an answer, but that guy is long gone now.

"So, are you ready for after the game?" Dayna asks holding a sleeping Colton in her arms.
"What did you do?" I ask tilting my had expecting the worst possible outcome.

"I just told Brent to make sure Crow doesn’t leave the locker room without seeing you, he told him he had someone for him to meet." My hands fly to my face, this is super embarrassing for both of us and it's only just begun.

"Jesus, this is going to be so awkward." I mumble as I stare at the ice, my eyes panning to the goaltender with the giant 50 on his back. Luckily he's having a great game so he should be in a good mood at least after the game.

When the final horn rings and the Hawks have defeated San Jose 4-1, Dayna taps my kneecap "Come on Doc, you've got a boy to see." I grab my purse from beneath my feet and follow behind her as she leads the pack from the suite downstairs to the private tunnels. It's a whole other world downstairs one I haven't seen before, and frankly it's a little terrifying and it sort of smells. We wait in a lounge for about a half an hour until the players start trickling out and we move to the hallway, waiting by the dressing room door. My stomach is a ball of nerves and I'm not even sure what's about to happen, I guess that part is up to us but I think we're both going to get a shove from a Seabrook.

I'm scrolling through my emails on my iPhone when I catch an elbow to the ribs, "Oww," I look over at Dayna who nods her head towards the door. Out steps Brent and Corey and my God does he look super freaking good, "Oh, shit." I mumble hoping she doesn’t even hear me as my eyes go wide and I can't help but stare at him. It's not like he didn't look good in his suit at the ball but he just looked uncomfortable that night, but right now he looks happy and his hair is really curly and he doesn’t have a tie on and just wow. If I opened my mouth I was sure no words would spill out, but the closer he got I knew I was going to have to speak.

The two guys stop in front of us, Corey stays quiet while Brent kisses his wife and takes Colton from her, "Sutton, you remember Corey?" I smile and give a shy wave, "Of course, great game by the way." When he smiles I can't help but smile even wider, dammit he's adorable. "Thanks, I take it you sat in the wives box?" I nod, "I was forced, I gave my ticket to one of my nurses."

"Like you didn’t want to sit with us anyway! I don't even know why you buy tickets, you're always welcome with us Sutton." Dayna confesses and I shrug, "Because you can't get the true feeling of the game all the way up there! Sometimes you just need to sit with some other screaming fans." I can't help but notice the smile widen on Corey's face as I let out my inner hockey geek.

Colton yawns and lays his head on Brent's shoulder, "Daddy I'm sleepy," the toddler whines and the couple looks at each other. "Well we should probably get little guy to bed, and leave you two to get to know each other eh?" Brent wiggles his eyebrows and my face heats up. "Oh God," I mumble as Dayna kisses my cheek and Brent shakes Corey's hand, as soon as they’re walking down the hallway we turn to one another.

"We just got played so hard." I laugh trying to cover my red face as I lean against the concrete wall, Corey shakes his head laughing as well.

"Can't say this isn't one of his better tricks he's played on me, at least there's a pretty girl involved this time." he admits and I can't help but smile.

"I'd say I can't believe they did this, but I totally knew she would…"

"Do you want the truth?" he asks and that totally catches my attention.

"Well yeah, that's usually important to know.."

"I told her to let me know if you ever came to a game, so ugh here we are." he admits and beneath the stubble growing on his cheeks I can totally tell he's blushing and it's downright adorable.

"Well, here we are, in the basement of the UC when we could totally be somewhere else, because between you and me I'm starving, and I'm not the one who just played a hockey game." He smiles and I internally applaud myself for breaking the awkwardness, one of my many weird features I can either initiate awkward silence or break it.

"Dinner?" he asks and I nod, "Let's go Crow."

'Corey'

I'm not sure whether I should thank Seabs or be royally pissed at him right now for throwing me into a blindsided date. Not that I'm complaining that I am going out on a date with Sutton, if this is even a date? But I really wasn't planning on going out tonight at all! But here I am waiting on Sutton at an Italian restaurant and to be completely honest I am more nervous now than I was before I set foot on the ice a few hours ago. I don't know what she drives so each time a car pulls into the lot I have to creep and see who climbs out, so far none of them are the girl I'm looking for.

A sleek all black Charger pulls in next and parks a few cars down, I'm pretty sure that's not her so I stay in my car. Maybe she got lost? I think to myself, I should have gotten her number before we left but the decision to get food was so sudden I didn’t even think about it. The door to the blacked out muscle car opens and to my dismay I see the familiar head of brown hair. 'Could this girl get any better?' I immediately think as I open my door and step out into the dark October night.

Walking over to Sutton I realize she's on the phone, but she smiles and mouths "sorry" as I approach her. "No, really it's fine Max this is my job remember? Call me if anything changes, her contractions should cease with that combination of medicines. Yeah, you too." She hangs up the call and tosses her phone into her giant purse, slinging it over her shoulder "Hey sorry, I promise I'm not on call."

"It's fine, is it always like that for you?" I ask and she shrugs as we walk towards the restaurant, "Not always, I'm technically off today but that was one of my residents and I'd rather them call me than one of the other attending physicians."

All of this medical jargon is going to take some getting used to I realize, having not a clue what she's talking about when she says attending and resident. "You'll have to dumb down this medical stuff, I have no clue what any of that meant." I confess and she smiles as the hostess takes us to a table.

"Anything you wanna know, I'll explain it as simply as possible." she smiles in the seat across from me and for the first time I get a really good look at her, head on.

Her hair is a deep chocolate brown with other browns and golden blonde streaks running throughout, it's not natural as Dayna as already spilled, and her eyes are big, and brown as well. She's got perfect white teeth, and a smile that I already can't get enough of. I'm still not sure how tall she is, each time I've seen her she's had heels on but even with those she's barely 5'10 so I would say she's probably 5'5-5'6 coming just to under my chin.

"Not sure I have many questions about your field of expertise there doc, considering I'm not a woman or a expecting dad." I confess as I tear my eyes away from her, Sutton softly giggles as we both peruse the menu.

Our waitress appears and we place our orders, by the way the young girl looks at me I know that she's recognized me but thankfully she doesn't say anything, yet anyway. There's an awkward pause in our conversation after she leaves the table and I feel my phone buzzing in my pocket. Slyly I pull it out to reveal a text from Brent, *You better be on a date with Sutton, and don’t you dare say anything stupid.* Sliding it back in my pocket I can't help but blush a little, with the Seabrook's behind us and mostly on her side I feel like Brent is going to be that protective brother over Sutton.

"So, you're from Canada right?" she asks breaking the ice for the second time tonight and I shake my head yes, "Yeah, I'm from Montreal. Have you ever been?"

"No, but my Dad goes fishing up near Toronto every year with some of his college buddies, but that's more of a man trip than a family adventure." she takes a sip of her water after she speaks and I can see it in her face that she's really close with her family.

"You said you're from Illinois right? But not Chicago?" I remember her saying something about where she was from at the gala but it’s escaped my mind.

"Yeah, my parents still live in Evanston but I moved into the city when I started med school." Here we go with the medical stuff again I think to myself, I'm not even sure how long it takes to become a doctor!

"Can I ask you a question?" I ask and she nods, "This probably sounds dumb but how long did med school take? Like how did you get to become an OBGYN?"

"It's not dumb, most people don’t understand it. But ugh, I did 4 years undergrad at Northwestern pre-med with a degree in human biology. Followed by 4 years at Chicago Medical School, and 3 years of residency at Chicago Med. Now I'm in my first year as an attending and I'm in charge of like 5 interns who don’t know their ass from a scalpel."

Even while explaining her career she still manages to make me laugh, and I realize this girl is special and she doesn’t take herself too seriously. Which is exactly what I need in my life according to all of the WAGs. Everything Sutton just told me amazes me, how in the world do you handle 8 plus years of college? Holy crap! I didn’t even do one year of school and I can't even imagine doing almost 10 grueling years! "That's amazing, I mean I didn’t go to college at all so wow, 8 years." I'm rambling but I'm still in shock, and if my math is correct she's not even 30 so it's really astounding!

"Thank you?" her tone questions and I smile at her, "Sorry if that was weird, I've just never met a young doctor like you, let alone one as pretty as you."

Her cheeks blush and she smiles, "Oh, umm. Well thank you Corey, but it's really not that big of a deal." Beautiful, funny, smart, honest, and humble; this girl really does have it all.

As our date goes on I learn a little more about Sutton and her family, who as I assumed earlier she is very close with. Her dad, Charlie is an aerospace engineer and her mom, Lorraine is a trauma flight nurse, both of which sound like some badass careers if you ask me. She also has one older brother named Shawn who's a dentist (because apparently brilliance runs in their family genes) and a sister in law named Claire. Their daughter, her niece Rowan is almost 3 and is absolutely the apple of Sutton's eye!

I also learned that she, and her parents are huge Cubs fans and low key Blackhawks supporters, enough to know who I am not enough to flip out. All of this is good to know but there's one thing I'm dying to figure out. How is a girl like this single at almost 30? Because to me? Already, after one date I find her damn near perfect. But that's something I will save for another time, you know if she decides she wants to go on another date with me.

We've survived the date and have made our way back out to the parking lot, and this is where things get tricky. Kissing her is going way too fast I think, so I know that's out but do I hug her? I'm 30 years old but right now I feel like I'm 16, and taking a girl back to her front door.
In lieu of the front door I follow her to her car, at the driver's side door she turns back to face me and she smiles up at me. Even in her heels she's still not eye level with me which is pretty funny, but not many girls are 6'2 is kind of tall for a girl. "Thank you for dinner, it was great." Sutton tells me her lips curling into a smile.

"Anytime, I'm glad we got to know each other even if we did get set up." We both laugh and I I know that tomorrow at practice I'm going to have to thank Seabs.

"Me too, maybe next time we won’t need the Seabrook's help?" she smirks and I nod, "I think I'll need your number then, Dr. Parker."

She holds her hand out and I hand her my phone, I watch as her tiny fingers slide over the keypad. "Now you have it Crawford, I'll see you later." She slides the phone into my hand and stands on her tippy toes to kiss my cheek, I step back giving her more room to open her car door. As she climbs in she waves goodbye and I return the favor before walking back to my car. Sliding into the driver's seat I look at her contact information "Sutton P." with two emoji's: the dark haired princess, and the hospital. I shake my head tossing my phone into the passenger's seat, this night has been full of unexpected twists and turns but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Notes

instead of linking the outfits for Sutton on each chapter you can find them on my Polyvore: Indianas-angel3 :) PS. it may contain clues to future chapters.

feedback is appreciated :)