Ch. 19

A/N: Sorry for taking a day or two to post this.  I will admit that it was done on Monday already, but part of me wasn't sure if this is how I wanted things to go, so I held onto for a bit. I figure that if this is what I wrote first, than this is how it's supposed to be. I hope you enjoy and thank you for all your supportive comments, they are definitely the reason I couldn't hold off posting this.
As for the soundtrack... you have to check out the video if just for the fact that John Mayer looks like he's 12 in it. This is definitely one of my all-time favorite songs which is saying a lot with my huge array of music choices.

Suppose I said
Colors change for no good reason
And words will go
From poetry to prose

Would you want me when I'm not myself?
Wait it out while I am someone else?

And I, in time, will come around
I always do for you

Suppose I said you're my saving grace?

John Mayer – Not Myself

Ch. 19

“I’m still not used to this hair!” my dad laughed as he pulled me into a tight hug when I stepped into his office.

“It took a little for me to get used to also,” I giggled, remembering how I couldn’t stop looking into mirrors after I had it done.  “I’m not sure if I’m going to keep it like this or not…”

“Oh?”

“I think it’s time to drop the whole Gabby act,” I mumbled, plopping down onto the comfy couch I took many naps on over the years.  He had it in his office no matter where he was working and it was always a favorite spot for me.

“You don’t sound so excited about that…”

“I’m just worried some people won’t understand why I did this,” I mumbled.

“Well Kristy seemed to understand,” Dad said as he sat down next to me and pulled me into him as the tears began running down my face at a quick pace.

“That’s because Kristy is wonderful,” I blubbered.  “Ugh, I don’t know why I did this…”

“You did it to heal and it seems to me that you have come such a long way because of it,” he said in his soothing father voice.  “So who is this really about it?”

I looked up at him through tear distorted eyes and smiled half heartily.  “I’ve never been good at lying…”

“No you definitely didn’t get your lying skills from me,” he chuckled as he handed me a tissue.  “If Kris doesn’t understand then he isn’t half the man I thought him to be and he isn’t worth it.”

“Jennifer told you…”

“Of course she did.  I think Kris is a great kid.  If you want I can talk to him myself…”

I stopped him by throwing up my hands.  “No, no, I don’t think that is necessary, Dad.”

He laughed, knowing that I would not at all want him to handle this.  “So please tell me you are going to join us in the family box tomorrow night?”

“It’s going to be a good game,” I smiled, after blowing my nose.

“No Flyers gear allowed.”

“Boo.”

“Hi!” I said happily into the phone, feeling like a kid on Christmas morning.

“Hi yourself,” she chirped back.  “What ya up to?”

“Just getting done the morning skate.”

“Have any plans for lunch?”

“Not really, unless you say different,” I grinned.

“I’ll pick you up in the parking lot where your team bus is.”

“Alright, see you in about 5 minutes; I just need to finish getting changed, unless of course you’d rather just have me in my towel...”  I suddenly heard her making fake gagging and puking noises.  “Okay, then I’ll at least put a shirt on.”

“That would be greatly appreciated.”

5 minutes later I was outside, fully clothed, looking around for her as I realized I didn’t even know what kind of car she drove.  I walked over behind the bus and then heard a horn beep.  When I looked over I found a black Mercedes with a hand waving out the down window.  I jogged over and opened up the passenger door and slid in.

“And you talk about my car being expensive,” I joked.

“It’s not mine, it’s my dad’s,” she smiled nervously. 

As she went to put the car in drive I stopped her with my hand and leaned across the console.  “Not so fast,” I grinned.  She blushed and leaned in towards me and pressed her lips to mine.  Just like our kiss on Monday night, her lips melted into mine and soon I was drinking from her.  She tasted sweet and I suddenly had a lot of other things on my mind besides food and a pre-game nap.  “Hmm, just as good as the first time,” I whispered.

“Not bad,” she whispered back, humor lighting up her green eyes.  “So what are you hungry for?”

“It took all I had not to say, “You,” but I knew right now was probably not the best time to tell her that.

“Just a sandwich or something.”

“Well, we can get that back at my place if that’s cool.  There is some left over cold cuts left over from my sisters’ party…”

“That would be even better,” I said, thinking that maybe she had some ideas that lined up with mine.

I was thrown off guard by what happened next.

“You live at your uncle’s place?” he asked, obviously sounding surprised.  This isn’t exactly how I planned on telling him, but something told me that announcing the girl he had become friends with was a fraud, should not be told in a public place.  No one was home, the girls were at school, Patrick and my dad were at the rink and Jennifer was out with some friends, so it gave us somewhere private to talk.

“Um, kind of…” I said slowly as I parked the car.  “I’ll explain when we get inside,” I said hesitantly, as a terrible knot grew in my stomach.

“Brian is not my uncle, he’s my dad,” she said as tears suddenly fell down her face.  I had been looking at the family pictures on the mantel in the huge family living room while she was busy in the kitchen making lunch.  I knew something was up; the closer we got to the house, the quieter she became.

“What are you saying?” I asked, staring at the family picture of the Burke’s that included the raven haired Abby.

She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves and began speaking; telling me everything about what she had gone through with Brendan’s death and with the miscarriage she had with Tyler and then spoke about the depression she had been in.  I felt the walls close in around me, I felt totally betrayed, angry and lied to.  My blood boiled and my ears rang, but as much as I wanted to cut her off and begin yelling at the top of my lungs, I just sat there and listened to everything she had to say.  When she finally stopped talking I just stood there looking at her like she was someone I never knew. 

“I’m not quite sure what to say…Abby.”

“I promise everything I’ve been around you, has been me…”

“Just not your name, your looks or what you told me about your family?” I raised an eyebrow as the words flowed out of my mouth like acid.

She looked down at her feet and nodded her head as she mumbled, “Yeah.”

“This isn’t the way to start a relationship.”

“I realize this, just another reason why I never wanted to get involved with you.  However, that is why I’m telling you this now, because I’ve realized I do want to be with you.” she said quietly.

I left out an ironic laugh and began pacing back in forth in front of the fireplace.  “How the hell do I know what you are saying isn’t a lie now?” I reached for her chin and coaxed it up so that she was looking at me.  “I mean, you’ve said that you didn’t want to get involved with another hockey player, what makes me different?”

“To be truthful, I’m still trying to figure out that answer.”

Well that’s definitely honest.  “So what about Tyler?  He obviously isn’t cool about this whole situation.”

“How do you know about that?”

“Well, he made a remark in the hall yesterday after we arrived at the Centre, something about staying away from his girl.”

I watched as she clenched her jaw and shook her head.  “He told me yesterday that he wants to get back together and work things out…”

“And what did you say?”

“That I was involved with you,” she said quietly, looking back down at the ground again.

I dropped my hand from her face and rolled my eyes.  “Heh,” I breathed out.

“I’m sorry,” she suddenly blurted out.  “If you don’t want anything to do with me, I completely understand…”

“And what about Dr. Doolittle?!  Aren’t you supposed to be meeting up with him after you get home tomorrow?

“I was planning on calling him and telling him that I don’t want to see him.”

I stood quiet for a long moment before speaking again.  “Gabby…I mean, Abby,” I stopped and took a deep breath while running my fingers through my hair.  “This is a lot to think about, I’m going to need some time,” I said honestly.

“I can understand that,” she nodded her head looking like a broken child.

“Please take me back to the hotel now,” I said as I walked away from and towards the door.  I heard her suck in some air, failing miserably at not sobbing and it took all I had not to turn around and forgive her that moment.  I don’t care how much of a hard-ass man you try and be; there is just nothing worse than the sound of a woman crying, especially when you know it has something to do with you.  So I looked around and found a tissue box, grabbed it and handed it over to her.  She looked up at me with her tear-stained green eyes and I felt my anger begin to crumble.  “I think staying friends is the best idea at the moment,” I continued, as the voices in my head were calling me a complete fool for just not forgiving her and moving on.  Seriously though, how can I look past the fact that everything was basically built on a lie…but then I can actually understand why she did what she did…ugh.

She just nodded her head as she blew her nose and began walking back towards the kitchen to grab the keys.

“Abby,” was all he said as he surprised me by gently grabbing my arm, spinning me back towards him.  Next thing I knew I was pressed up against the hard stone of the large fireplace in my family’s living room with lips covering mine and his hands all over me.  At first I was too stunned to move save for my arms wrapping around his neck to pull him closer to me.  His kiss was demanding, like he was pressing out all the bad in an attempt to erase all the uncertainty from the last few moments.

Once I regained some composure, I kissed him back, as if I was fighting for my last moment on earth.  Our kiss deepened and my hands threaded through his hair while his hands felt hot and heavy on my hips.  I moaned into his mouth when his fingers slid up over-top my thin shirt material and cupped my breasts.  His palms massaged them as he broke from my lips and left a searing trail of saliva from my chin-line to my ear.  “Forget about that just being friends part,” he growled hotly into my ear.   “The only thing I care about right now is that you are the first woman I’ve felt this way about.  I don’t give a shit who your father is, I just want to know that what I feel about you is real.”

“I hope so,” I whimpered back.  “I need you Kris.”

“That’s what I want to hear,” he pulled back and flashed his cocky smile at me before kissing me possessively, causing me not to care about the sharp edges of the rock kind of digging into the back of my head and back.  The pain helped me realize what was real.  “We don’t have a ton of time…”

“I can’t imagine it’s a good idea to be exerting yourself before a game…” I whined back as he nibbled at my neck, making the decision to stop things even harder.

“Are you coming back to Philly tonight?” he asked against my neck as I felt his hand slide down my thigh of my jeans and into my Y, no doubt feeling the heat he had generated.

“I…can…prolly get my…ticket chan-ged,” I panted incoherently as he pushed upwards against my aching sex with his hand; my jeans causing an erotic friction.

“You should prolly do that,” he smiled at my incapacitation.  “I promise to make it worth both of our whiles.  Now, before I get more carried away, is that sandwich ready so that I can take it back to the hotel with me?”

I nodded my head silently, holding my breath so that I wouldn’t put up a protest.  I knew damn well he needed to get back and take a nap and I wouldn’t want to be the one to be blamed if he played with no energy tonight.  Besides, if he was good enough with his thoughts, he could use his want for me in a positive way on the ice tonight, giving him extra aggression out on the ice.  Something told me Kris had good control, especially since he was the one stopping this from going any farther at the moment.

Chalk it up to hormones or maybe it was just the fact that sometimes you need to put aside everything you were taught and just go with instinct.  Since the very beginning there has been something about her that has kept me tagging after her.  I never would have put this much effort into getting with Dawn, let alone any of the other girls I’ve had in my bed over the years.  Abby was something special and for once I listened to the little voice in my head and prayed to God I made the right decision.

Somehow I got a nap, even though I could still feel my dick aching in anger.  I was happy when I woke up to find that I was no longer sporting an embarrassing hard-on, but that was probably due to the fact that I had a very vivid dream in which I didn’t have the control to hold back on my actions with Abby.

Abby.  It still seemed completely unbelievable to me that she was the same girl I had seen at the beginning of the season with Tyler.  Not that I knew her then, but it was obvious to see that she had basically done a 180 since moving to Philly.  I couldn’t help but laugh when she admitted that they were calling her little ‘project’ Operation Happy Abby.  I also couldn’t help but laugh at her annoyance when she informed me of Jennifer’s theory of me being traded to Philly a thing of fate. 

“See, aren’t you sorry for resisting this for so long?!” I joked as I popped the collar of my coat when she was driving me back to the hotel.  “I mean really, do you think many other guys would deal with boogers on your nose and your insistence of constantly running around in fleece jammy-pants and sweatshirts?”

“I think it’s the car…”

“The car?”

“Yeah, the car.  I might have given you a chance sooner if you drove a Ford Focus,” she grinned as she drove me back to the hotel.

“Oh yeah, I’m sure I’d have to beat the girls away with a stick if I drove cruised the town in that,” I mocked.  “So are you going to be at the game tonight?” I asked sincerely.

“Yup, I’ll be up in the family box tonight…”

“You don’t sound thrilled by that fact,” I chuckled at her lack of excitement.

“Hockey games were meant to be watched from the lower level; the closer to the ice, the better it is,” she announced.  I sat quiet for a moment until she looked over at me and asked, “What?”

“I’m just trying to figure out how you were able to hide the hockey geek in you for so long.”

She just shrugged her shoulders and said, “Well, it’s not like I’m a fan girl.  I grew up around the sport; it’s just as much a way of life for me as it is for you I imagine.”

“That’s exactly how you knew I’d need some company after the shitty loss in New York,” I suddenly said as the pieces slowly fell together.

“Yeah, I guess so,” she said with a shy smile.

“Well now we definitely need to have that little hockey scrimmage, because I need to find out how good your skills really are,” I chirped as I poked at her side, making her squirm.

“Don’t distract the driver!”

“I can’t think of a few better ways to distract the driver,” I growled as I leaned over the console and ran my tongue from the top of her shirt collar to her ear lobe while giving her right breast a firm squeeze.

“Fuck. Stop,” she shivered wildly and cursed through clenched teeth.  “I swear this is only going to amount to a lot of trouble.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” I laughed as sat back in my seat properly and re-buckled the seatbelt.

The game was completely insane.  We dominated in the first period, but the physicality of the game was brutal, with Komisarek laying a dangerous hit on Carcillo, giving Mike a game misconduct.  With 4 minutes to go at the end of the 1^st, Kimmo and I found ourselves in the penalty box with roughing minors.  I might have gotten in a couple of the guys faces, but I was more than annoyed that only Brownie went to the box for the Leafs, giving them a late power-play.

“You sure seem like you are having fun being a pest out there tonight,” Kimmo pointed out in his thick Finnish accent.

“Yeah, playing against your former team gives you a little extra energy,” I laughed.

“Keep up the good work, kid,” he said, tapping me in the leg with his stick as we watched our team kill off the penalty.

During one of the commercial breaks, the dreaded kiss cam made the rounds around the ACC.  Of course it was always amusing to watch when you weren’t getting yelled at by the coach, and tonight Lavy wasn’t yelling at us, so I had a chance to enjoy watching the jumbotron.  The whole place erupted when Brian Burke was suddenly in the heart with a short-haired blonde.  Everyone started whooping and hollering as Abby leaned over and kisser her father on the cheek, both blushing like crazy from embarrassment.

“Isn’t that Gabby?” Mike leaned over while still laughing.

I looked over at him and nodded, “Well, yeah, it’s actually Abby, Brian’s daughter…”

His eyes opened up with a little surprise and then smacked Carter in the arm as he stood in front of us on the ice.  “Hey, you were right, she’s Burke’s daughter.”

“I thought so,” Jeff nodded.

“I’ll explain later,” I said to Mike as he turned back to me with a questioning look on his face.

He nodded and we both turned back to the ice as the whistles blew, signaling the end of the stoppage.

“Are you sure about this, Patrick?” I asked nervously as I ran to catch up with him in the airport terminal.

“Um, yeah,” he said, as if I was asking him a stupid question.  “I figured you were coming back to Philly with me anyway and they always have extra seats on the planes…besides, Dad already called Holgrem and okay’d it with him.”

“Oh lovely, now I’m suddenly back to getting special privileges,” I grumbled.

“I’m going to make you sit in the bathroom for the whole flight if you want to be a grumbling brat,” he said in his big brother voice.  I scrunched up my nose about the bathroom idea and zipped my mouth shut with my fingers and threw away the imaginary key.  “Exactly what I thought,” Patrick laughed as we stood in line to check in our luggage.  “Besides, are you really going to complain about sitting with Kris?”

“He might not want to sit with me,” I said.

“You’re right, I don’t want your cooties,” Kris said into my ear, making me jump and leave out a loud squeak.  He had somehow snuck up behind me and I politely glared at Patrick for not telling me.  He just stuck out his tongue and walked over to one of the coaches, leaving Kris and I alone together.  “Why hello, Kiss Cam Star,” he joked, keeping a professional distance between us.  I knew it was more for the fact that he did not want to get razzed by the 8-10 pairs of eyes of his teammates looking curiously over at us.

“Ugh, I’m going to send a nasty-gram to the tech-staff,” I grumbled.

“I have to admit that I was a little disappointed,” he said as we began moving towards the terminal to board the plane.

“Oh? Why’s that?”  I asked, thinking he was going to make some comment about wanting to be the one to kiss me.

“You didn’t have any Flyer’s gear on.  What kind of girlfriend doesn’t support her man?!” he chirped, quickly scooting away before I could swat him.

“Who says I’m your girlfriend?!” I yelled after him, causing a few of the milling people around the terminal to look over at us.

“Girls like you don’t curtsey for just any man.  I knew then I already had you,” he piped back with a cocky ass smile.