I groaned, leaning forward over Tuukka to grab my phone and tap answer. The Hockey Song by Stomping Tom Connors stopped and I pushed my phone up against my ear. Sitting back on Tuukka's lap.

"It's kind of, a bad time, Em" My hand traced over Tuukka's chest as he beamed a smile up at me. I bit into my lip, fighting the urge to hang up on Em and kiss him.

"Well, Hello to you too, Alek" she snapped aggressively, but sighed sadly.

"Sorry," She apologized, "I wanted to wait until you came back to tell you but, it's eating me up. Can you get somewhere private?" I wanted to roll my eyes but, I was genuinely curious to what she was talking about.

"Yeah sure, just hold on a sec" I covered the speaker, falling onto the bed beside Tuukka. I whispered to Tuukka, "I'll be right back" then pecked his lips.
My lips lingered for a second, but pulled away and got up. I heard him sigh, then felt his eyes on my ass as I walked towards the bathroom. I drove the lock home and uncovered the speaker.

"Yes, sister?" I hummed, she sucked in a long and exaggerated breath as if she was preparing herself for a fight.

"I lied...." she trailed off, continuing after a seconds pause, "I've been in Boston for a year now, and I already know Brad Marchand," she admitted, "And we've been dating for six months, he's the father." She gave a relieved sigh.

I didn't know if I wanted to yell at her for lying, or punch Brad for not telling me straight out. I could barely get a word in as she continued, not worried about my answer.

"I wanted to tell you but, we agreed to tell you after this road trip" she sighed, I rolled my eyes. Sounds like a Marchand move.

"Is he going to help with the baby?" I asked, I could picture her shrugging.

"He said, he would....." She trailed off. It wouldn't be short of Marchand's reputation to dump her.

"Well that's a guarantee" I replied sarcastically. Didn't she know what he was all about? Get money, fuck bitches- that was Brad Marchand for you.

"I know but, I just want to be......okay" she was crying. I sighed.

"I'll talk to him, don't worry." I reassured her, she sniffled back tears.

"Thanks" she said. After we agreed we'd talk tomorrow, we said our goodbyes and I tapped end call. I unlocked the door, and stalked back out into the main room.

If I wasn't so tired, I would've gone to Marchand's room and beat the living shit out of him then tell him that he has to be a part of that kid's life or else there would be continual beatings worse than the one he just received.

I sighed as I stood over the now asleep Tuukka. I smiled to myself, his face was so somber and calm- He looked like he wasn't under any stress at all, "Such a bed hog" I muttered then, giggled. I pulled him under the blankets. I flipped the light off, and pulled the coverlet off so I could snuggle in beside him. As soon as he felt my warmth, his arm lifted around my shoulders and tightened in a steel grip. I let out a small breath, and let my arm coil over his stomach. Within seconds I was asleep.

---

We landed in Chicago at five in the morning, and got to the hotel by 5:30. Tuukka and I were roomies again, which was nice because, we faked the whole friend thing well. No one noticed that he get a little close to me sometimes, or touched my leg or arm but, they were boys and boys are oblivious. That morning, before we actually had to get up, Tuukka and I had a make-out session. It was the most heavenly thing on earth.

"Hey, babe" Tuukka hummed as he came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. I giggled as he begun to kiss gently.

"Are you going back to bed?" I asked, wiggling around his grip so that I could look into his eyes.

"Yeah" He nodded, "You should join me." He gave my waist a gentle squeeze as he brought me closer to him.

"I can't, I have to do my pre-game rituals." I said, and he gave me the saddest pout face.

I cupped his face, while smiling, "They work, okay?! When I don't do them we lose not because of me, but the either the defense is whack or the forwards can't score" I defended, he rolled his eyes even though he was smiling.

"Fine" he hummed, his hands slowly dropping from my waist, and mine dropping from his face. I pecked his lips softly.

He chuckled softly, "Go! The rituals call upon you!" He teased playfully, and moved over to crash on the bed. He watched as I stripped off my comfortable sweatpants, and t-shirt; His eyes were glued to my figure. I quickly changed into my workout clothes, and told him to get some sleep.

I left a half asleep Tuukka in our room, and went downstairs to the exercise room in the hotel. I claimed the first bench press I saw. I didn't have Seguin for a spot so, I had to be careful. There weren't a lot of people there since it was only 6 in the morning. Only a girl on a treadmill and Boychuk.

"Hey, Alek" he greeted, I smiled at him giving a wave before lifting the barbell off the stand.

"Pregame rituals?" I asked, slowly but steadily lifting it up and down.

He nodded and continued to do some pull ups on a bar on a few feet from where I was. Returning to my own workout regime, I did what I usually did, bench 350 no higher, no lower, then uphill treadmill for a 3 mile run, 250 push ups and pull ups with 10 pounds on my back, wall sit for 12 minutes and then 100 more push ups.

By this time it was 7:46 and I was absolutely starved. The team breakfast wasn't for another 14 minutes so I ran upstairs to have a quick shower. I knocked on the door because, I had realized half way up the stairs that I'd forgotten my key.

"One second," I heard rushing around before Tuukka opened the door to reveal his half naked body. The only covering his special area was a very loose towel. My eyes went wide and I think I forgot to speak. After a few seconds of shock, I responded,

"Hiya, um...I'm going to take a shower" I awkwardly walked past him into the room. He chuckled.

"Don't act that way, you know you want all of this" He bellowed loudly and shut the door. I ran into the bathroom and shut the door before he could freaking reveal the whole show, if you catch my drift. Not that I didn't want to see it but, in a hotel room with 2 players on each side of us, not going to happen. I'm definitely not that type of girl, I'm not a puck bunny nor will I ever be.

I chuckled lightly before stripping and turning on the tap.

-----

I pulled a towel around my body and gingerly opening the door, scared of being ambushed. I tightened the towel around my chest as I stepped out just to scream. Tuukka had hid behind the door, sneaked up on me, just to reach around my waist and pick me up like I was weightless. He burst out laughing, putting me down and enveloping me into a hug.

"I got you good" he chuckled, I punched his arm even though I was smiling.

"Don't fucking do that again" I giggled, as he grabbed his arm.His lip drooped and he gave me a mock pout look

"That hurt" he whined, and a smirk came up on my face.

I rolled my eyes, walked past him towards my bag.I pulled out some clothes out at random and was about to change when Tuukka came up behind my back. He pushed my hair off and begun kissing my shoulder, trailing them up my neck. I moaned as he got my sensitive spot.

"I only have 5 minutes to dress, babe" I moaned. He sighed and pecked my lips.

"Fine, I'm just going to watch" he decided and threw himself at the messy bed. It was obvious he'd had a great nap. I sighed and put on the clothes I grabbed.

"Are those all you're tattoos?" he asked, pointing to my three visible tattoos. {Forearm}, {Hip} and {Back}

"Yeah, but I'm playing to get goalie stick right here" i said pointing to my other hip. He nodded and slid a Suomi *Finland* shirt over my head.

He kissed me then, pulled me out the door by my hand.

---
I put my ear buds in and the song 'not afraid' was playing by Eminem. It was 5:30, the game started in 15 minutes. I had all my stuff on but, even if this was 5th or 6th game, I was still fucking nervous. My first out of town game and I was panicking. Not even Eminem could calm me down. I was leaning on my pads in the dressing room and before I could believe it I was walking out of the dressing room, in front of Lucic and behind Seguin.

"You'll be fine" Tuukka's voice brought down the stress level.

I knew it was a regular season game but, I wanted to earn my keep even if I was the lowest paid player on their team. Not the point, I shook my head and listened to coach give me a speech about how I will be fine, that I'm an amazing goalie. Only Tuukka's voice brought me back though.

"Alek. Look at me." he commanded, I obeyed.

"Think of Finland, the snow falling as you and your family are out doing chores getting ready for the first snowstorm of the season" He whispered in my ear as I stepped onto the ice. I don't know how that fucking worked but, it did. The stress and pressure was lifted and was like I was playing hockey with my mates with our homemade rink back in Finland.

I skated over to the crease like I owned the fucking rink. I blocked each shot as all the eyes of the United Center on me, including the ones of Patrick Kane who was growing more interest in me.

------

Patrick Kane was charging up the ice, seconds in between him and Boychuk. He wanted to be the first to score against her, for his team and to show off. She was flexible, hot, independent, tempered and most of all, single. Alek on the other hand a different read on the situation, she knew he would switch to his backhand because she was reading him and Toews since the beginning of the first period.

She was right. He snapped a backhand shot right into her chest, no rebound for him to stuff in. He cursed her and pushed her into the crossbar, by accident. Her head collided with the crossbar sending her to the ice.

He was furious at himself, he hurt her, her perfectness. What the hell was happening to him? It had shaken Alek up a lot. She had been pushed and shoved before but, never this hard. She hadn't been expecting that from him, he didn't seem like the type to do that. She fell to the ice, her vision was blurring and her mind was if fog wafted in and was blocking her thoughts.

She hadn't even noticed Seguin shouting at her, "Are you okay?" his voice was so muffled it sounded like he was talking with a thick cloth over his mouth.

However, as fast as it came it was gone. Rask was already on the ice ready to take her place. No, she wouldn't let him, he was a absolute work horse and he needed to rest for the game tomorrow.

"I'm fine" she assured them and got up, everything beginning to blur. She pushed Rask in the direction of the bench.

She shook her head and regained a little bit of her focus, to notice that Kane was leaving the ice with what looked like a broken nose and so was Chara only he was going to the locker room, he winked at her before leaving. She was grateful for him. She smiled knowing that now Kane had a target on his back. No one messes with a goaltender and gets away with it.

---

The buzzer sounded for the end of the 3rd period and the bruins won 3-1. Alek was skating to bench when she stopped, something was wrong. It was the sudden splitting headache, the nausea, the blurring vision, and the ringing in her ears.

And before she realized the symptoms, she crashed to the ice, her consciousness gone.

Notes

Hey, I have two points to cover. PLEASE READ THEM BOTH!

1) My heart goes out to Southern Alberta, my town, Medicine Hat is flooding too, our mayor isn't doing dick and our water supply is going done as we speak. All we can hope is that it will pass soon.

2) I don't know why i change POVs, i just felt like it **shrugs**, a happy surprise. Like you!

Me: Where you born on a highway?
You: No
Me: Oh, i thought that's where most of the accidents happened.