Beta

Tyler ran a hand through his hair before putting his helmet on. He was at the rink extra early and decided to get a little skills session in before most of the other guys arrived. He was surprised to see the captain already out there. "What are you doing here so early?" Tyler called out.

Jamie Benn turned his head to see Tyler walk onto the ice and skate over to him. "You texted me and said you'd be here early, so I got here early," Jamie shrugged.

"Alex didn't keep you at home this morning?" Tyler asked.

Jamie shook his head. "She left for a shoot early. I don't know how she did it, she was up half the night."

Tyler raised an eyebrow. "Damn," he muttered.

Jamie laughed. "I wish I could say you were right but she wasn't up for that. She was working on stuff for Shea's wedding," he filled him in. He quickly changed subjects. "Are you going to dinner with Shea and Savannah's parents?"

Savannah had brought it up with him a couple of weeks ago that her parents were going to come in a couple days early for Shea's wedding and they wanted to have a big dinner with everyone the night that Audrey's parents were in town. "Oh yeah, Savannah made it seem like a big deal," Tyler told him, doing a little stickhandling with the puck.

"You better watch out, they're gonna grill you," Jamie laughed.

"Like you're not gonna get grilled, too! They're pretty much Alex's parents, too," he reminded Jamie. Alex's mother had split when Alex was a toddler, and her father never really knew how to raise a child. From the moment Alex had met Shea and Savannah, the entire family brought her in and she became a third sister to them. Their parents treated Alex as if she were their own. "And they're gonna ask you why you haven't put a ring on it yet!" he pointed out. Tyler had been giving Jamie a hard time for a while about not proposing, and Jamie always shrugged him off.

"But Savannah is their daughter, and you're dating her," Jamie countered. "You know they've probably looked you up, and I can tell you that a google search probably isn't going to show you in the best light."

"Shit," Tyler muttered under his breath. Jamie was right, a google search wasn't going to help him with parents.

Jamie laughed, seeing that Tyler was legitimately worried. "Dude, chill. If Shea and Alex are cool with you dating Savannah, then you're fine. They wouldn't let you near her if they didn't think you were good enough," he pointed out, and Tyler knew he was right. "How's she doing, by the way?"

Tyler almost told him about Bartholomew escaping but figured he'd wait on that one until Savannah told the girls. Instead, he focused on her injuries from the last time she went after Bartholomew. "She's still having concussion symptoms. She'll lie and say she isn't, but she is. Her wrist is getting better, though."

"She see Lansing yet?" Jamie asked, referring to one of the Stars' team physicians who they had recommended her see.

Tyler nodded his head. "Yeah, told her she needed to work limited hours. You know how well that's gonna go," he rolled his eyes.

"She's stubborn," Jamie replied, and Tyler nodded his head in agreement.

A few of their teammates joined them out on the ice, and they started talking about their evenings from the night before. Tyler pushed Savannah and her planning on going after Bartholomew again to the back of his mind for the time being in order to focus on hockey. The playoffs had started and they needed to remain in the right frame of mind if they wanted to make it all the way. They had won two games in Winnipeg and were hoping for the two home wins to sweep them.

Practice was on the easier side. Coach clearly saw that his players were tired and wanted to give them time to recover. They were let out early, but Tyler took his time, knowing Savannah would be mad at him if he showed up to pick her up from work early.

He decided to stop by Starbucks on his way home, surprised to run into Shea inside. "Hey soon to be wifey," he called out.

Shea turned around, a smile on her face. "Hey, are you coming to my wedding?" she asked him.

"TBD," he replied. "We need to win these next couple games and then there's no question. But, if we end up having to go back to Winnipeg, then I might need to be facetimed in," he told her. Game 5 was back in Winnipeg, and though they'd fly home after the game, he'd miss the wedding, and probably a lot of the reception afterwards.

Shea chuckled. "Guess you just need to sweep them," she told him before stepping up to the counter to order. Tyler pushed up right next to her, placing his own order and paying for them both. She glanced up at him. "Thank you," she told him sincerely, as they moved to the other end of the counter to wait on the drinks. "So how's my sister doing? She texted us about Bartholomew."

Tyler inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. "She's going to go after him again," he said lowly.

"Does that surprise you?" Shea asked.

"No," Tyler admitted, but clearly, he wasn't happy about it.

"You knew this about her when you decided to be with her," Shea pointed out. "It's hard, trust me I know, but you just have to trust her to use her best judgment when it comes to stuff like this."

"Basically you're telling me not to argue with her about it," Tyler replied.

Shea laughed. "Yeah, that's another way of putting it. She loves her job, just like you love yours."

"I wish people would stop comparing going after criminals to playing hockey."

"Hey! You could get killed in yours, too!" Shea commented, and Tyler looked at her curiously, wanting her to expand on that thought. "You could take a bad hit or get sliced in the neck with skate or something," she gave examples.

Tyler laughed. "I can assure you the odds of me getting killed by getting sliced in the neck with a skate and the odds of her getting killed by going after criminals are vastly different."

Their names were called to pick up their drinks, putting their conversation on pause. After getting their drinks, Shea changed subjects. "You're coming to dinner Wednesday, right?"

Tyler nodded his head. "Yeah, you picked the perfect night between games, so I'll be there."

"Thank you, I appreciate it. I know Van will, too," she told him.

"You all act like it's gonna be some terrible dinner."

Shea shook her head. "Look, I love my parents. They're great. They've always supported me and Van, and they're the best. But, they're also a little loud and rambunctuous and nosy, and I know that may be a lot for some people. And, Audrey's parents are a little more laid back, which worries me. So I think the more people that are there, the better it'll be. They can talk to you or someone else instead of driving Audrey's parents crazy," she explained.

"I think I can take some of the heat," Tyler told her.

"Oh, they'll be grilling you," Shea laughed. "But, they already know you're better than Jason ever was," she spoke the name Tyler couldn't stand. Jason had been Savannah's abusive ex, who she rarely talked about, but Tyler knew he would punch in the face if he ever got the chance. "Plus, let's be honest, if you weren't good enough, Van would just dump your ass," she said with a grin to let him know she was joking.

"Thanks," he said sarcastically.

"Really, though, I'm glad you'll be there. And Jamie. It'll be good to have you both there," she spoke sincerely.

"I'll be there," he promised. "But I gotta go pick up Savannah right now," he told her. She looked at him curiously, and he explained further. "I dropped her off at work this morning on my way into practice. Figured if I picked her up, she couldn't stay super late," he explained.

Shea smiled at him. "Thanks for taking care of her. I'm really glad you ended up with her."

"Only because you turned me down," Tyler laughed.

"Sorry, Audrey's better," Shea winked. "Tell her to text me!" she added as she walked to her car. Tyler simply nodded his head as he got back in his car and drove to get Savannah.

Walking into her building, the first person he ran into was Liam. Tyler gave the man a good look up and down. While he trusted Savannah, and knew there was nothing going on between her and her coworker, he still wasn't keen on her working closely with a good looking man. "Just here to pick up Savannah," Tyler told him.

Liam nodded. "She mentioned you'd be here. She's in her office," he told him, pointing in that direction.

Tyler walked that way, seeing her facing away from the doorway, typing away at her computer. "Ready to go home?"

Savannah jumped at his voice and turned around in her chair. "I thought I'd have at least another hour til you got here," she replied.

Tyler shrugged. "Practice was short. Plus, I even got Starbucks, ran into Shea while I was there," he informed her.

Savannah lifted her head. "Shit, I need to call her back. She texted me earlier about dinner Wednesday."

"You all really are worked up about this dinner."

"Just you wait," Savannah told him, but didn't expand on that thought.

"I can't wait to meet your parents," Tyler told her. He knew he wasn't bad with parents, though if he was honest, he was actually terrified to meet Savannah's. She was the first woman he was this serious about.

Savannah laughed. "I hope you feel that way Wednesday."

"How's work going?" Tyler changed subjects.

"Shitty," she answered honestly. "No idea where Bartholomew is. Though I have this gut feeling Odella has something to do with it," she mentioned Bartholomew's daughter, who had deterred Savannah and her coworkers when finding Bartholomew and Junior the first time.

"I'm not getting you out of here anytime soon, am I?" Tyler asked.

"Can I have one more hour, please?" she begged. "You can even sit here with me," she offered.

Tyler sighed. "Fiiiiine," he relented. "But only because I know if I take you home now that you'll still be worried about work."

She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "Thank you. And after I get out of here, we can do whatever you want."

"Whatever?" he asked suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Please, we both know we're not going to do that. You think I'm so fragile," she countered, rolling her eyes.

Tyler leaned back in his seat across from her at her desk. "Well if you wouldn't have nearly killed yourself a few weeks ago…" he trailed off.

"Yeah yeah," Savannah rolled her eyes, having heard this before. "Let me finish and then I'll go home and rest."

"Deal," he told her, knowing she really did need the rest. He looked over at her, seeing her concentrate intently at her computer screen. He knew she wasn't supposed to be staring at screens with her concussion, but he knew he wasn't going to be able to get her off her computer or her phone, and he'd given up that argument a while ago. Instead, he'd glanced at his watch, giving her exactly an hour before he forced her out of her office and home to rest.

Notes