Ch. 7

A/N: Well they are finally both in Philly... and we are starting to see Abby (Gabby) begin to thrive in her new surroundings, but just what kind of trouble will she get herself into? Only time will tell I guess. :o)

I am likely to miss the main event
If I stop to cry or complain again
So I will keep a deliberate pace
Let the damned breeze dry my face

Oh, mister, wait until you see
What I'm gonna be

I've got a plan, a demand and it just began
And if you're right, you'll agree

Here's coming a better version of me

Fiona Apple – Better Version Of Me

Ch. 7

“Come to New York on Sunday,” Patrick pleaded over the phone as I sat on the bus to get back to my apartment after work.  There was a bunch of rowdy college kids sitting in the back, so it was slightly hard for me to hear him.

“What?!”

“Come to New York on Sunday!” he yelled back into the phone.  “Take the train up and you can be my car buddy for the ride back to Philly.”

“Oh, you are coming back to Philly this week?”

“Just for a couple days, I have a few things to tend to before the trade-deadline.  So what do you say?”

“Who would we be sitting with?” I asked concerned.  Yes, I had passed with flying colors around Carter, but I still wasn’t sure if I could fool people I’ve actually known for a few years, and in the case of John Tortorella, known since I was in my teens.

“Well, I can get tickets to sit with the masses…” he said sarcastically into the phone, as if to hint it would be the most terrible experience ever.

“And there is no other seat like it,” I chirped happily into the phone.  I meant what I said and Patrick knew it because he felt the same way.  Even though we were used to sitting up in luxury boxes after all these years, sitting down near the ice was the best seat for any hockey game.  “Well, get 3 tickets please,” I continued as I swiped my transit pass and exited the bus.

“Three?”

“Yes, three.  I am not riding the train to NYC by myself,” I scowled into the phone.

“Who are you bringing?” Patrick asked sleepily into the phone.

“Kristy.”

“She likes hockey?” he asked, sounding surprised and interested at the same time.

“She’s a huge fan.”

“Don’t you think that could be a problem?”

“Patrick, just because I’m trying to hook you up with her does not mean you can deny me a traveling buddy.”

“Abby, I’m just saying that she might find out your identity because it might be obvious that you know more about hockey than you’ve led her to believe, especially since it will have to come out that I am a scout for the team…”

“Yeah, I know.  I was actually thinking of telling her the truth anyway.  I don’t like lying to someone that has ultimately become my best friend,” I chewed on my lip as I stood in the elevator.

“Well let me know what you decide so I know how much to play things up,” he said sincerely into the phone.  “I’m going to bed, I’ve got a good buzz and I have to be up early tomorrow for a study group.”

“Dork.”

“Yup.”

“Love you.”

“Love you bye.”

Kristy was ecstatic when I told her about the game.  “So how much do I owe you?” she asked while digging through her purse once we settled into our seats on the train early Sunday morning.

“Nothing,” I said quietly with a smile.

“Oh come on, Gabby,” she threw her hands down on her lap in frustration.  “You are not paying for my ticket, especially for MSG; the tickets are way more money than if we’d go to the WFC…”

“Why would you owe me anything if I didn’t have to pay for the tickets?”

“So who would pay for the tickets?” she asked.

“Patrick.”

“Patrick is going to be there?”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t tell me he was a hockey fan…that just makes him even hotter!” she exclaimed with a sigh.  “So he is paying for the tickets?” she asked, getting back to original dilemma after her mini-swoon session over my brother.

“I guess you could say that…”

“Why are you being so cryptic?!” she finally freaked out.

I turned in my seat and took Kristy’s hands in mine.  I laughed when she looked at me like I had turned mental.  Well, she might really think I’m mental when I’m done telling her the truth.  I took a deep breath and left it out before speaking.  “I’m not who I have led you to believe,” I said seriously.

“Excuse me?”

I laughed nervously.  “Well, I didn’t lie when I said I was living in Toronto and moved down here for school…”

“Gabby, what are you talking about?”

“My real name is Abigail Burke.  Patrick is actually my older brother and he is a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers…” Kristy never knew my last name because it wasn’t something I felt was important to tell her, until now.

“Burke…as in Brian Burke?”

I nodded my head slowly up and down.

“As in, Brian Burke the GM of last year’s Team USA and the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs?” she asked, her demeanor changing from freaked out to excited fan girl.

“Yeah,” I said quietly as I put my finger to my lips to remind her to stay quiet because there were a bunch of Flyer’s fans sitting in close proximity of us.

“Holy Shit,” she whispered with big brown eyes about ready to pop out of her head.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth from the beginning, but you have to understand that the whole reason I came here was to get my life back on track.  I’ve been a total wreck since my brother Brendan died, to the point that I don’t even know who I am anymore…”

“You don’t need to explain anything more if you don’t want to,” Kristy interrupted me as tears sprung up in my eyes.  “So you want to stay Gabby?”

I just nodded my head as I dabbed a tissue to my eyes.

“How do people in the business not know you?” she asked.

I pulled out my driver’s license and showed her what I normally looked like.

“Oh wow!” she exclaimed.  “Yeah, you would have fooled me easily if I had known you before,” she grinned.  “Awesome job!”

I couldn’t help but laugh, scaring myself when it was on the verge of sounding like I was manic.

“I promise to keep your secret,” she said as she pulled me into a hug, “as long as you take me to more hockey games, of course.”  We both busted up laughing at this.

“I think I can work on that…”

We both sat giggling for a few more moments when Kristy suddenly burst out, “Shit! You said we are going with Patrick?!”

“Yeah?” I answered slowly and totally confused.

“But look at me!  I’m in jeans and my hockey sweater…” she basically whined.

“You look perfect,” I elbowed her.  “What else would you wear to a hockey game?”

“Well, I would have worn something low cut and cute.”

“Believe me, Patrick is totally into this more than the low-cut, cute look,” I said reassuringly.

“But look at you!” she complained some more, pointing out my jeans and black tight knit sweater.

I looked down at myself and remembered my bag.  “Oh, yeah, now that you know the truth, I can put this on,” I said, reaching into my bag and pulling out my LeClair jersey.

“No way! That’s a game worn John LeClair jersey,” Kristy freaked out once more.

“He’s good friends with my dad,” I said like it was no big deal.  In all honesty it wasn’t a big deal to me.  John was basically an uncle to me.

It took her a moment to catch her breath after he short fan girl moment and then looked at me once again with big eyes.  “I’m sorry, I promise not to act like this all the time.”

“It’s okay,” I laughed at her sincerity.  This was definitely going to make life a lot easier now that my new best friend was on the inside of Operation Find Happy Abby.

So my first game with the Flyer’s went well, but I had a chance to win the game during the shoot-out and failed due to Dwayne Roloson being in the midst of a career renaissance.  I can’t lie, I was nervous playing with a new team, and it was even more difficult knowing that the Philly fans were excited about coming to their team.  It was a huge must win in the mind of the team and I wanted to be apart of that.

My first point with the team came on Friday night against the Panthers with an assist to Richie’s goal.  My first goal came during the last game of the road trip in NYC against the Rangers on Sunday with an empty net.  Not an exciting highlight-reel goal, but I would take it.  It felt good to be congratulated by the guys that I had just beaten to win the Cup several months before.

The one positive with joining the team on a roadtrip was the fact that we were forced to spend time together, so I had a lot of time to get to know my new teammates.  I instantly made friends with the guys my age.  As the Captain of the team and an all around nice guy, Richards helped me fit in easily.  The one guy I wasn’t sure I would be able to get along with ended up becoming a quick friend; Danny Carcillo was a complete riot and a locker room clown.  He was always a pest when I played against him, but like Burish had done in Chicago, Danny executed his job well.

Complete lack of understanding of my new surroundings smacked me in the face as we stepped off the train in Philly, early evening on Sunday.

“So do you need a ride?” Carter asked as I followed the guys to the parking lot of my new home arena.  I was texting with my mom to find out an address to my new apartment when he asked.

“Um,” I laughed nervously, “Well, do you live anywhere near Olde City?”

“Yup, is that the address?” he asked as he pointed at the text message my mom just replied with.

“Yeah.”

“That’s the same building Lupul and Eager had stayed in…”

“Yeah, Eager was the one who texted me the number for the place,” I admitted.  Ben had texted me as soon as the news broke, giving me pointers on where to find a place to stay and other points of interest, along with a ‘good luck.’” Sharpie also texted me some of the same info and Lupul wrote down a few places to check out when I said my good-byes in Toronto.

“Did your girlfriend move you in already?” Carter asked, slightly surprised that I had a mailing address that wasn’t a hotel.

“My mom and little brother, actually; my girlfriend and I broke up over the summer so that makes this trade a little easier,” I admitted with a laugh.

“Ah, that does make things a lot easier to deal with then,” Carter agreed.  “Well, at least you have 2 days in between games to get yourself settled.”

It didn’t seem too confusing to get from the arena to my new place and for that I was thankful.  I looked up at the warehouse turned high-priced apartments and took a deep breath before thanking Carter for the lift.

“Do you want a ride to the practice facility in the morning?” he asked as I grabbed my luggage.

“Coach gave me the address for my GPS, so I think I should be fine, but I appreciate it,” I said gratefully.

“No problem.  If you need anything, give me a call, I’ll just be meeting up with Upshall tonight since the Coyotes are in town a day early, so don’t hesitate if you need something,” he said and at that I nodded and closed the door with a nod of thanks.

“This has to be my favorite place in town!” Kristy said happily as we browsed through the menu at the Philadelphia Bar and Restaurant.

“I’ve never eaten here,” I said as I looked over the yummy comfort food, thinking about how I was going to need a few extra minutes on the treadmill tomorrow if I ordered what my mouth was watering for.

“It’s one of my favorite places too,” Patrick added with a smile as he looked up over his menu at me and Kristy.  “Looks like we aren’t the only ones that enjoy this place either,” he said, nodding to whom ever was coming up behind us.

“Patrick!” Scottie Upshall cried loudly as he, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Paul Bissonnette and Danny Carcillo came prowling over to our table.  I’m pretty sure I felt my blood pressure sky-rocket, along with my heart-rate as my anxiety hit hard.

“Hey Scottie! Definitely a long time no see,” Patrick smiled broadly as he hugged his old friend and shook hands with the rest of the guys.  “You guys in town an extra night?”

“Yup, just got here from Nashville…” Upshall answered but was promptly cut off by our waitress who was obviously a little overly excited about the influx of hockey players.

“Do you want me to push some tables together over here?” she cut in, squeaking a bit and making herself look like a total ass.  I guess you could say I had become quite critical of other wait staff since I had begun working as one.

The guys looked around at one another and shrugged their shoulders, “Yeah, why not?” Carcillo piped up with a look thrown my way that put me alert.  It wasn’t a look that said he knew who I was, but it sure as hell was a look that told me he wouldn’t mind having me in his bed.  My thoughts were confirmed when he took a seat next to me and instantly introduced himself to me.

“The name is Danny,” he said with a toothless smile that made me smile back easily.

“Gabby,” I nodded.

“Gabby is my cousin,” Patrick chimed in, helping take some of the pressure off of me.  “And this is her friend Kristy,” he finished, introducing my best friend.  I wish I could have captured the look on his face when we arrived at MSG and he first saw Kristy dressed in an oversized hockey jersey and jeans.  It was like he was seeing her for the first time through new eyes.  They had chatted easily the whole day and so far things were looking up in that department.

After we were introduced to all the guys everyone fell into easy conversations that sometimes involved the whole group or just mini-conversations amongst two or three people.  It was good to be around my kind of people again, even if they had no clue I knew just as much as they knew.

“You work at the Continental, right?” Jeff asked as our drinks were delivered.

“Yeah,” I answered, unable to hide the smile that came along from thinking back to Valentine’s Day.

“Yeah, sorry about Fiona…”

“She’s a bit of a puck,” Richie cut in, earning him a glare from Jeff.

“Like your girlfriends are any better?” Jeff shot back with a hint of humor to his accusation.

This garnered some sniggers from the whole table as Mike smiled meekly and nodded his head in agreement.

“So was this your first hockey game today?” Danny suddenly turned to me at one point during appetizers.

I shook my head as I swallowed a mozzarella stick.  “No, I’ve been to a few games over the years,” I answered.

“Do you have a favorite team?” he asked with a wink, attempting to be charming.  Of course I’m not quite sure how charming one can be when missing your front teeth and don’t even bother to buy a bridge or something for the times you aren’t out on the ice.

“No, not any team in particular…” I began but I was cut off by Biz who seemed to be pulling for my attention every chance he got.  Now Paul was definitely large steps ahead of Danny in my mind, he was well groomed and there was something about his personality that made him instantly likable.  The shirt he was wearing didn’t help much either, it hugged his muscular arms and there was something about his tattoo that totally got me all hot and bothered.   After not being involved with anyone for a while, coupled with his attention to me, it was hard not to be flattered, even if the little voice in my head kept saying, “Don’t forget your rule, Abby!!”

“Don’t worry Danny, I’ll make her a fan of the Desert Dogs before we leave the city on Tuesday night,” he chirped, making the whole table laugh as I blushed and took a big gulp of my beer.