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 Twenty-Four



The Bannen Warriors games were frequent, with games five to six days a week, and practices everyday. There really wasn’t any rest for the wicked. Denise got to see Graham after the morning skate everyday, and she admired how rested and relaxed he appeared. If that was her having to go through intense physical activity everyday, she would be drained by the week’s end. Graham had been doing this everyday for the better part of his life though, so she supposed he was more than used to it. However he did, along with all of his teammates, require an afternoon nap.

The Devils game was scheduled for tomorrow, and as much as Denise hated to admit it, she was starting to feel a little nervous. She hoped that their plan would work, and that Hilary would feel like a fool. It was about time the persistant blonde stopped following Graham around. She was getting tired of Hilary’s constant badgering of her boyfriend. Graham had enough to deal with in his life, without Hilary acting like an annoying little girl. Couldn’t she see that Graham wanted nothing to do with her?

With Graham, and all the other Warriors in practice, it gave Denise more free time to run over specific details of the socials with Bob (minus Hilary) as well as spend more time with Amanda. Although Denise wasn’t actively working on her new clothing line at the moment, she still remembered that Amanda was a seamstress. Denise wanted to test out her skills sometime, when there wasn’t as much going on in her personal life.

*Maybe once this Hilary fiasco is done, I can work out something with Amanda* Denise reasoned. Hilary was taking up more of Denise’s time than she first realized, even though they hadn’t spoken a work to each other in weeks. If it involved Graham though, it involved her. Although he was the star forward in one of the most popular teams in the NHL, there was a line of respect that was crossed when Hilary came on the scene. Not only was it inappropriate for her to be forcing herself on Graham when there were fans and news cameras around, it was worse because it was common knowledge now that Graham was dating Denise Woods, a biggie in the fashion world.

Denise had to stop worrying about it. Hilary was going to be taken care of. Graham couldn’t put up with much more either, so it would be simply a matter of time until they could be rid of her, hopefully forever. Once that was over with, Graham could focus on his hockey career without having to worry about crazed fans, and Denise could go about her duties as an events coordinator. Since Hilary neglected showing up to meetings or helping Denise with event planning, Bob was growing more and more displeased. Hilary would be fired shortly.

Stopping at the local café, Denise grabbed a coffee to go, wanting to get home and make a few calls before Graham was done in practice. Their time together was limited, so she wanted to free herself up so Graham wouldn’t have to wait for her to finish her work.


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


Tom Welding was pleased with his team. As the Captain of the Bannen Warriors, it was his responsibility to lead by example. He tried his best to do just that – getting into corners, making clean hits, handing the puck, and scoring as often as possible. The rookies were especially trying to copy his style, and the veterans were always learning from him.

With the way the Bannen Warriors were playing, he could definitely see them making the playoffs and being successful. The Stanley Cup had slipped from their grasp all too often, and he didn’t want this year to be a repeat. They worked to hard and trained all summer to do well in the regular season. If they could dominate the rest of the regular season, like they were doing right now, then the playoffs would be in their hands. Even better, the Stanley Cup would be presented to them come June, after wiping out all their rivals.

Last year they had come so close, within a breath of the Cup finals. They didn’t play hard enough though, and because of that, they were eventually beaten. Their dream wasn’t realized, and that was it for the summer. A couple weeks vacation, spend time with the family, play some golf, and then it was back to training. Hard, intense training, with the goal of making themselves bigger and better for the next year. They did have some new faces on the team this year, but on average each player gained between 3-5 pounds of muscle.

With Colin Burkins shaping up on goal, Francis Osler had a decent backup in him. With that kind of security, the Warriors could relax more. When Burkins was out, Graham Kelly, Neil Hamilton and himself didn’t have to worry anymore about whether he was going to hold his own in the net. Colin was proving to be quite the player himself. Tom had spoken to Coach Richards about letting Colin play even more games, and so far, it looked like Coach was doing just that.

With Jordan Michaels and Eli Hanks as Alternate Captains, working on defense and forward respectively, both men brought a different aspect to the game. Jordan wasn’t the type to get in and cause a lot of fights, whereas Eli wasn’t afraid to throw his weight around and let the other team know when he was on the ice.

Patrick Raymond was new to the team, and played right wing. Sometimes Coach Richards paired Graham and Neil together, but as of recently, Coach had taken a liking to testing out Patrick with Graham, a left winger. With either Eli or himself playing as center, it was a deadly combination.

Coach Richards favourite front line though consisted of Neil on right, himself on center, and Graham on left. It was a line that produced goals, got points in assists, and crowded the opposing team’s net whenever possible. When the three of them were on the ice, the other team definitely takes notice.

Tom grinned. No doubt, with a team like that, they’d be top contenders for the Cup. He was excited to see how they would fair come playoff time. It looked good right now, and they were doing their homework. Coach Richards as well as the General Manager of the Warriors made sure that they were reviewing the right tapes from last year’s final, as well as constantly watching replays of their games and practices. That way they were able to keep on top of their game, in every way. It was bound to be a good season.


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


Neil glided against the smooth ice, glaring down players of the opposing team, the Calgary Flames. Although the men were good-natured to one another off the ice, during a game it was a different story. Neil Hamilton had a reputation in the NHL as being one of the biggest hitters (each team has at least one) and the other team seemed very aware of that. Some of the smaller, more experienced players kept their distance from Neil in the warmup. They had felt firsthand what he was capable of doing in a game.

The rookies and the goons didn’t bother keeping out of his way though. The rookies were ignorant, thinking that they could intimidate Neil, or believed that they would take him down during the game. The goons though, they knew the power in Neil’s check and were very much aware of how often he liked to drop the gloves and throw a few punches. They looked forward to meeting him on the ice.

Neil could sense the heavy atmosphere on the rink, and the game hadn’t even started yet. There was some bad blood between the Flames and the Warriors though, with the Flames bigger players seeming to go after the Warriors smaller ones. Last game they played against each other, one of the players from the Flames sent Eli Hanks off on a stretcher wearing a neck brace. Although Eli was fit to play now, it was still a cheap hit and the Warriors were still sore about it. They didn’t like to see any of their men sent off to the hospital, nearly unconscious.

Taking his place beside Graham, he waited for the national anthem. They were playing on home ice, so the crowd was largely Bannen Warriors fans. He could spot a few Calgary Flames jerseys in the crowd, but they were greatly outnumbered.

“You bury the first one.” Graham said beside him, grinning his usual goofy grin. Neil chuckled. They had had a chat in the dressing room prior to stepping out on the ice about Neil scoring the first goal of the game. Amanda had dared him to do it, and Graham had since joined in on that dare.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll score the first one, so long as you assist.”

“Deal.”

The local singer came out and serenaded everyone with the national anthem, the crowd joining in halfway through. By the time the anthem was finished, the building was practically shaking from the roar of the spectators. Neil was pumped. He loved hockey, but he loved the fans equally. It got his adrenaline pumping. Slipping on his helmet, he look his place at the faceoff circle. It was going to be a good game.


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


The Bannen Warriors won their first faceoff, thanks to Graham. From that moment on, the game seemed to be in their favour. The Flames didn’t seem to play any of their goons for the first period, and Graham was thankful for that. Although he wasn’t opposed to laying out some hits, it just wasn’t something he liked to do. He was known for scoring and assisting, not for hitting and checking. That was Neil’s job.

Neil followed through on his dare, and with 8:47 left in the period, he scored the first goal of the game. Graham had set up the puck perfectly for Neil to take and force past the Flames goalie. It was a beautiful shot, Neil leaping into Graham’s arms when the goal horn blared through the rink.

The Flames put 2 pucks past Osler in the second period, but Tom tied it at 2 ten seconds before the period ended. Going into 3rd period, the Warriors knew that they had to somehow get a one goal lead, so Coach Richards put out his top line of Hamilton, Kelly and Welding to score. Within three minutes of the period starting, Graham slipped one past the Flames goalie to lead the game 3-2. It stayed that way for the remainder of the game, and once the time mark hit 0.0, the horn blared, signaling the end of the game.

Players from the Bannen Warriors jumped off the bench onto the rink to congratulate their fellow teammates. Something akin to a group hug took place on center ice before each player went to Francis Osler to praise his goaltending skills. This was another win in the Bannen Warriors pocket, and they sure felt it.


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


Graham lay a soft kiss on Denise’s pink lips. He had showered and dressed after the game, then headed straight to her house. It was late when the game had ended, and instead of grabbing a beer at Harold’s, the guys just wanted to go home and sleep instead. Graham hadn’t been able to see Denise all day, and he was starting to feel it. They were to have their little romp together tomorrow, and Graham was excited by the thought. There was a danger of course, with news cameras, reporters, and fans so close, but he had enlisted Neil to specifically keep those people out. It definitely wouldn’t be good for him to be caught having sex with his girlfriend at the arena right after a game. Typically, after a game, he was supposed to go straight to interviews, but he had taken an unsuspecting Patrick Raymond and made sure he was covering most of the interviews to take place tomorrow. Hey, he needed his media attention too.

“Ready for tomorrow?” Graham asked, grinning wolfishly. Denise laughed.

“How ready do I need to be? I think that I’m pretty skilled enough in that department as it is.” Graham couldn’t disagree. The things that she did with her mouth, her hands, her body…well, she could drive him crazy with just one look. She had that much power over him, and she didn’t even know it.

“Point. Well, Neil is all ready to guard our privacy, and there’s no doubt that Hilary will show up.” Hilary had shown up after tonight’s game, and Graham had filled Denise in on all the details. Denise didn’t even know how Hilary managed to squeeze her way past security to the hockey players. As far as she knew, she thought only the media had that privilege. Denise guessed that Hilary was abusing her position as assistant events coordinator to get to the team. Wouldn’t it be a shock when she gets fired, and can’t sneak in anymore!

“Good, so long as it isn’t exposed to the media just what a horny guy you are in real life. Wouldn’t that scar children.” Denise joked. Graham kissed her again, pulling away slightly to grin against her lips.

“It goes two ways, my dear. You are also a public icon, since everyone now knows I’m with Denise Woods, premier fashion designer. I’d get exposed as a horny athlete, but it’ll be excused because of my testosterone. I can’t help that I act this way. I’m a guy. You however, you’ll look like a very bad girl. You’d be the one to cause scandal.”

“Don’t you like bad girls?” She taunted. He laughed.

“Just a bad Denise.” In a rush, he tossed her over his shoulder. Denise let out a startled cry before giggling, allowing herself to be carried to the bedroom like that. Graham was only 28, and sometimes he acted ten years younger. Regardless, she was crazy for the blue eyed man. That wasn’t ever going to change.



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

A/N: Thanks for reading! More to come soon! Please review!

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