Ice Dreams

Disclaimer: Characters in this story are my creation, as is the city of Bannen,(as far as I know, Canada doesn’t have a city named Bannen in it), and the hockey team is fictional as well. California doesn’t have a team named the Demon Dogs, that is my creation. The characters in this story are not based on any specific person, so any similarities are purely coincidental. I do not own any rights to the Stanley Cup, and I don’t make any money off my stories.

---------------

I tried to keep the hockey facts as truthful as possible, so please excuse any slip-ups. While this is a story based on a sports team, it’s not my intention to focus completely on it, but instead on the romantic story. I also don’t bash hockey players in real life, as I’ve met a few and they are lovely people. It just works in my story for now. I was inspired from the recent playoff games, when this plot bunny jumped into my head. Please enjoy.

Warnings: angst, lemon, oral, death, fluff, language, m/f


** Asterisks indicate thoughts

--------------------



Chapter Ten

Jordan Michaels was a little older than some of the members on the team, at 32 years of age. Married, with one child, he liked to think himself as a family man. It was hard though, having to travel all the time to play games when his wife and young son were at home. They supported him though, and whenever the Bannen Warriors played on home ice, his wife was sure to be there, as well as his child, cheering him on and supporting him. He couldn’t express how much love he had for his family.

Nearly 5 years ago, he had earned the position of Alternate Captain. His leadership, ability to motivate the team, and steely composure (on ice, anyway) had made him a shoo-in for the job. The players loved him, almost as much as they loved Tom Welding, their Captain. Many of the younger players would seek him out for advice, both professional and personal. He felt honoured that they would regard him so highly.

Eli Hanks was the other Assistant Captain. While possessing some of the same qualities as Jordan, Eli was more of an aggressive player, and when it came to the game, he was very vocal. Sometimes he would loose his cool. That’s not to say he wasn’t a good Assistant Captain, there was just a contrast between the two.

The one at the top though, was Tom Welding. Strong, talented, responsible, mature… there were too many good qualities to list about their Captain. The entire team loved him. Tom had been in the NHL since he was 19, and in all his years, had never won the Stanley Cup. Being 35, that was a long time to wait. Tom was traded around to many teams when he was younger, but had managed to stay with the Bannen Warriors for a good portion of his career.

Jordan hoped that this would be their year. They had improved greatly since last season, and they had been making the playoffs steadily for a number of years. They just couldn’t make it past the Finals. Either they would be beaten just before the Finals, or just after it started. The whole experience was frustrating. They had almost tasted victory a few times, but came up short. Many veterans on the Bannen Warriors were starting to get fed up with it. They wanted so desperately to win.

He reclined in his seat, starting to doze. The flight would be long, and he wanted to conserve his energy. The rest of the players chatted quietly among themselves, except for every now and then. Occasionally there would be an outburst, which would in turn cause some of the men to hoot and holler, depending on what they were talking about. Jordan hoped that they would try and keep the noise down.


Further up the plane….


Colin Burkins, honey blonde hair jelled in a mohawk, laughed at the ignorant joke Neil told. He was the number two goalie for the Bannen Warriors. A veteran player, Francis Osler, was the primary. Colin hoped that one day he would be the primary, but in the meantime, he would continue to prove himself as a worthwhile goaltender. At 25 years of age, he was hardly past his prime, and he looked forward to getting even more playing experience. He had been with the Bannen Warriors for 3 years now, though they had been a slightly rocky 3 years. In the past couple of months, his game had improved greatly, but not enough for Coach Richards to put him on the ice all the time.

Blue eyes twinkling, he told Neil one of his own jokes. It had been fairly dirty, but Neil seemed to like it, if his watery eyes from laughing too hard were any indication. Graham, Neil, and Colin had arrived to play for the Bannen Warriors the same year. They had clicked as friends right away, and for the first year, were even roommates.

Graham was seated beside Neil, and every now and then, would add something to the conversation. No one was particularly nervous about playing the upcoming game, as they had won against the opposing team numerous times. Their only true nemesis was the Demon Dogs, from California. They had beaten them several times, and had lost in the playoffs every time they were put against that team. It was highly frustrating for the Bannen Warriors.

Tom Welding came up the plane to sit with them. He chummed with the younger players for a bit, but had to go back to his seat when the plane hit turbulence. Travelling couldn’t be a problem for the players, as that was what they were doing most of the time. Conversation started to die down slowly, as more and more of the team started to doze off. It was crucial that they be well rested before their game. Nap-time was an essential part of the team’s life.


---------------------


Denise had spent her afternoon looking through old photos, doing laundry, and packing up some of the clothes she had come to despise. Now, hanging up in her closet were her old miniskirts, dresses, pant suits, and various items she had been forced to pack up in her previous relationship. Jeans were now in her dresser drawers instead of the overload of pinstriped pants, and high heels, stilettos, black boots – they were all lined up in her closet. She felt like she had accomplished something.

Now she just had to find her nerve, for good.

She had been reading through her journals from her pre-Jonathon days, laughing at some of the things she had used to think, when she was in her early twenties. The crazy relationships she had prior to getting serious, the days when she didn’t think about staying with one man too long. She had been a free spirit then.

Looking through the photographs, she had found some pictures of herself right after she had received her degree. The face hadn’t changed much, but the eyes were much more fiery and lively back then. Back when she was trying to make a name for herself in the fashion industry. She had drive, passion – now that she had gotten to where she wanted, some of that had died down.

Denise wanted to capture that feeling again. She had been so inspired when she was younger, and the ideas had come freely to her. Recently though, it felt like that creative stream was getting thinner and thinner. Graham was doing something to her though, and she felt that if she could hold onto that feeling, that something good would come out of it. She needed to discover herself again. She was on the path, but she wanted more.

In a strange way, she felt that Graham might be the missing piece in her complicated puzzle. Already, she had opened up to him more than any man she had ever known, and he hadn’t pushed her away. In fact, with the recent development in their relationship, it seemed his desire for her kept growing. It was flattering, to be sought after by a man, especially someone as attractive as Graham. He definitely wasn’t the ‘run of the mill’ kind of guy she was used to being asked out by.

Denise just hoped that she wasn’t making a mistake, assuming too much. She already felt like she had put her cards on the table and the risk of losing everything was overwhelming.


---------------------------



Graham sat on the bench, chest heaving. He had just gotten off the rink on a change, and now the alternate line was out on the ice, playing against the opposing team. It was Day 3 of playing away, and his muscles were feeling it. Neil and Tom sat on either side of him, dripping sweat and trying to catch their breath before having to go out on another change and continue playing.

Graham took the towel that was offered to him and wiped the sweat off his face, and cleaned his helmet visor. Coach Richards was standing behind the bench, occasionally pacing its length, shouting orders at them. As much as they were winning the game, it wasn’t by a lot, and there were no guarantees in the game of hockey. You couldn’t get cocky, because the score could change in a second, in all seriousness. Graham recalled a playoff game two seasons ago, where they were winning by a goal, and it was the end of the third period. It seemed they had that one in the bag. Out of nowhere, the opposing team’s Captain came in and slipped a clean shot past Osler, with 0.3 seconds left in the period. They had to go into overtime because of that, and eventually lost. Graham would never assume that they could win that easily again, whether they were one goal or three goals ahead.

The change came faster than he would have liked, but Graham jumped out onto the ice with his line and picked up where the others had left off. As much as the physical exertion could get tiring after awhile, the Warriors trained all year to keep their bodies in peak condition. They could put up with 60 minutes of hard playing. They wouldn’t give in to sore legs.

Neil had the puck, and managed to breakaway from two of the opposing team’s forwards. He took off down the ice at lightning speed, intent on scoring another goal. Graham followed his friend up the opposite side of the rink, keeping himself open for a pass. Being two goals ahead was far better than one, and he wanted to make that happen. Tom skated up the center of the ice, keeping a trained eye on the opposition. A big lunk looked like he was skating in to make a hit on Neil. If he could keep himself within Neil’s vision, he could show he was open for a pass.

Neil passed the puck to Tom. As if he just had a jolt of energy, Tom surged up towards the goalie’s net. There was no way he could shoot the puck and hope that it would get in. Their defense had an eye on him, and he had no doubt that the three other forwards on their team were close on his heels. He knew if he risked a glance behind him, he would be hit, possibly thrown to the ground, and the puck would be hard to recover.

Making eye contact with Graham, he knew that if he passed the puck to him, it would be easily intercepted before Graham could reach it. Looking to his left, he noted that Neil was closer, and it would be a safer bet to go with him. Just as he passed the puck to Neil, he was hit from behind, and lost his balance. He looked up just as he hit the ground and was grateful that Neil already had the puck and managed to get himself wormed between defense and the goalie.

Graham had come up on the other side of the net. In a matter of seconds, Neil had passed the puck to him, and he hit it hard. The puck slipped between the goalie’s leg and extended glove hand, flying into the back of the net. Graham screamed in triumph, and grabbed Neil in a bear hug. Tom jumped in on them a moment later to celebrate the goal. Up two, they felt that the odds were at least a little better of coming out victorious, and the goal gave the Warriors more vigor.


--------------------------


Denise lay on her bed, the covers strewn over her half-naked body, a bare leg sticking out. It had now been five days since Graham had left, and she was beginning to think that it was too soon to make love with him. She wanted to, every time he touched her she wanted to surrender to him. When they had kissed that night on the couch, she was certain she couldn’t last much longer without giving herself to him. But that had been five days ago. So long.

The first day after he had left, she felt like a new woman. She got all her old clothes out, she wore them with conviction. But clothes did not change a woman. Only attitude could do that. And now, even though she was perfectly comfortable in her own skin, and wearing whatever she wanted, she had been bitten by a terrible bug. A bug called self-doubt. She didn’t know if she could revert back to her old ways so fast.

But maybe it wasn’t that though. It wasn’t as much of a change as she was making it out to be. For all that she had gone out with Graham and spent much of their time discussing everything under the sun, she felt that she still didn’t know enough about him. Even though he made it perfectly clear he was not a womanizer, and never would be, she just couldn’t believe he didn’t use that sexy grin of his to gain some sort of an advantage over women. It certainly worked on her.

Perhaps this lack of trust was built up from Jonathon. After all, she believed that he had been a nice guy, perfect for her, only to be stabbed in the back. Graham did know that, but what if there was a chance, a one in a billion chance, that even though he knew this about her he would still knowingly hurt her anyway? Even as she thought this, she knew it was unlikely.

All Denise could think about were a pair of twinkling, icy blue eyes. Eyes that held a certain focus and coolness on ice, and warmth and charm off. She knew the charms those eyes bestowed, and she still felt the lasting effects from them.

*I’m a bloody fool* She thought.

It shouldn’t be that hard, surrendering to her feelings. Graham was a damned attractive man. Tall. Handsome. Passionate. And for all of his strength, he was gentle with her. For all that she hated to admit it, she felt at ease and protected in his arms. It wasn’t hard to imagine being with him, intimately. It was just coming to terms with her feelings.

*I haven’t felt this way in so long*

Was she falling in love? She didn’t know. She didn’t want to think about it. Love meant becoming even more vulnerable. In love with a hockey player. She wanted to laugh but couldn’t find the humour in it. She didn’t know what to think anymore. He had become such a big part of her life in such a short time.

Denise realized, with a jolt, that she hadn’t confided in Hilary at all. She hadn’t told her anything of her newfound romantic relationship with Graham. Weren’t friends supposed to talk about those sorts of things? In the movies, you always saw the two friends giggling over the telephone, talking about the man, what the love life was like, sometimes discussing some of the more private things. Denise didn’t want to do that at all. Hilary was more into herself and her satisfaction, she never seemed to spare Denise the time of day. Now that Denise felt like she had something special happening in her life, she didn’t want Hilary to go and ruin it by saying the wrong thing. Or not saying anything at all.

This made Denise bring into question her relationship with Hilary. They really didn’t act like friends most of the time. Sure, they went through the motions – talking and spending time together, late-night coffee, shopping trips, occasional guy talk – but going through the motions and not feeling it didn’t constitute a friendship. Denise wondered if Hilary even considered Denise a friend, or a passing amusement. Hilary went through men faster than Denise went through toothpaste, and she wondered if Hilary might view friends as the same sort of thing. Hilary had been snappy lately, but it seemed like it had been building for a long time.

*Do I want to tell her?*

Denise thought to herself. She really didn’t want to, she didn’t want to give Hilary the chance to ruin things with Graham.

*If she was a real friend to me, would I even worry about that?*

There was so much to think about. Denise couldn’t avoid Hilary forever, though sometimes she wished she could. She didn’t want to hear about who Hilary had last night, or the night before, what the bars were like, what kind of fight she got into, what her mother told her…..

Hilary acted like a teenager. A self-absorbed teenager. Totally different than what Denise was as a teen. Except, the only problem was, she wasn’t a teenager, she was a few months shy of turning 27. Denise recalled that Hilary was older than her, so the larger woman would already be 27, but acted a decade younger. It was hardly a good thing.

*Do I even really want to think about this?*

Denise threw an arm over her eyes to block the sunlight out. What she really wanted to do was take a sedative and fall back asleep, but she knew that wasn’t an option. As much as she didn’t want to think about her problems, they needed to be sorted out sometime, and sooner was definitely better than later. If things seemed to work out with Graham, magically enough, she didn’t want there to be garbage on the side. She would prefer everything to be worked out before doing anything with him.



-------------------


A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews! I promise it's going to heat up very, very soon. And yes, there will definitely be more with Neil and Amanda, but that is to come a little later. As for Hilary... you'll have to wait and see. :P


--------------------