Chapter 17 - Ambidextrous
It had been a few weeks since Ryan had re-injured himself at therapy, but once again, the swelling was finally going down. In fact, he’d been walking around the apartment without the crutches, since it was rare he was ever on his feet for an extended period. But tonight was the first pre-season game of the season – and perhaps the last game he’d see for a while until after his surgery – so the crutches were coming back out for his appearance at the arena.
He had mixed emotions about heading back to the arena, knowing there wouldn’t be a chance in hell that he could get on the ice or even in uniform. On the flip side of that though, he was looking forward to being able to see Emma at work, and even being able to provide her with terminology and such throughout the game that would aid with her article.
Per team policy, Ryan was dressed in one of his nicer suits, accented by a blue and gray tie that closely matched the team colors. The cumbersome leg brace was still present, but there was little he could do about that. He’d debated his glasses to refine the polished look he had going, but ultimately decided to stick with the contacts. As the bedroom door opened across the hallway, though, Ryan could see that Emma had made the opposite decision.
Much like she had on the day of the first fan fest, Emma looked stunning. She was wearing those same pin stripe pants and white shirt, and Ryan was quite amused to note his leather jacket topped the outfit. “I’m not ever getting that jacket back, am I?” He teased.
She grinned so wide that her eyes crinkled. “I think it looks better on me than it does you.”
They were starting to tread on dangerous ground here. If Ryan had his cousins’ morals he’d perhaps make a comment about seeing if she looked as good out of it as she did in it, but he bit his tongue and just grinned back at her and held out his arm for her to hook hers through. They’d decided it made more sense to head together to the game, so she’d get the benefit of his parking spot, and they’d both need to stick around after the game anyways.
Once they did arrive at the arena and grabbed their credentials entitling them to press box access, they headed inside, with Ryan waiting in the concourse area while Emma went down to pick up the evenings press notes from the Blizzard’s Director of Communications. While he waited, the doors opened for the fans and almost immediately he was recognized by some of their more loyal fan base.
“Ryan Perrault! Oh my god! Can we have our picture with you?”
The girl was young, perhaps still in high school, but she was so excited that she was practically shaking so Ryan nodded and grinned. “Of course.” While he waited for the girl and her friend to find someone to take the picture, he backed up towards the wall a bit more, leaning his crutches against it right behind them and shifting his weight so it was on his good leg.
Finally, the girls came closer and he put his arms around them both and smiled as the pictures were taken. As soon as they were done he grabbed for the crutches again and prepared to find Emma and head off to the press box but these girls were full of questions. “How’s your knee? Are you going to play this season? Does it still hurt?”
Shifting around again to make sure he had good balance on the crutches, Ryan turned back towards them and noted with some chagrin that other people had noticed him as well and he was starting to develop a crowd. “I should be having surgery in the next week. Unfortunately, it’s looking like I won’t be playing this season, but you never know. And I’ll definitely still be around.” He gave them both a wink and then bit on his tongue so he wouldn’t laugh when they grabbed each other and started squealing. “Bye ladies. I have to head off to the press box.” Giving them a small wave, he turned again and started heading towards the elevator, finding Emma gazing at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Personal fan club?” She asked as she said to the security guard that they were ready to take the elevator to the secured level the press box was located on.
Ryan shrugged his shoulders then swung himself into the elevator. “Fans. Kids. They were really excited to meet me.”
“So I noticed.” Emma replied dryly.
Nudging her with his crutch, Ryan teased softly, “Why Ms. Connelly, are you jealous of the little teenyboppers?”
“No!” She answered immediately, but the blush creeping up her cheeks told a different story.
Ryan laughed again as the elevator doors opened and he headed off to the press box, Emma on his heels making noises of displeasure.
~*~
L. Perrault in alone vs goaltender - goalie makes save.
Emma looked up when she felt the elbow in her ribs – Ryan had elected to sit beside her in the front row of the press box and she glanced over at him. “When it’s one player in alone on the goalie, that’s called a breakaway.” He explained before he turned his eyes back to the action on the ice.
Making the correction on the document full of notes, Emma looked up just in time to see the Blizzard’s opponents score yet again against the tryout goalie who had now found himself as the starter. Hearing Ryan groan beside her, she reached beneath the counter and patted his knee.
“I would have stopped that.” Ryan grumbled. “Blind-folded, with one arm tied behind my back. We’re getting shellacked, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it.”
Turning her eyes back to the action that had resumed on the ice, Emma reminded him softly, “Cards you were dealt.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to like them.” He muttered in response.
Rolling her eyes a bit and trying to ignore him, Emma resumed her typing, periodically looking up from her keyboard to watch the action, still trying to absorb as much as she could before the ‘real’ games started. She was grateful for these exhibition games; not just because they didn’t count in the standings, but because if the Blizzard played this bad every game, they were going to have an awful season. It also gave her more time to learn. And Ryan, even if he was being cranky at the moment, was helping.
“Uh Emma? You might want to look up.”
Glancing over at Ryan, she found that he was blushing quite a bit, and when she followed his finger, she discovered why – the Blizzard’s entertainment crew had decided to make her and Ryan the object of the “kiss cam” being shown on the big screen above the arena, and down below where they sat she could hear the crowd shouting encouragement. And since play had halted on the ice as well, she could even see the players hooting and hollering.
Smirking just a bit, Emma pointed at herself, and then pointed at Ryan, and then tilted her head at the camera, trying not to laugh when the view of herself on the screen ‘nodded’ back at her. “You don’t have to do this,” Ryan whispered beneath his breath, and out of the corner of her eyes, she could see that his face was almost scarlet red.
Emma winked at him and repeated the pointing for the camera one more time and when the camera ‘nodded’ again, she turned towards Ryan, finding that he was staring back at her with wide eyes. Reaching forward and grabbing him by the lapels of his suit jacket, Emma pulled Ryan close and kissed him hard for what seemed like an eternity, finally separating when she needed to catch her breath.
She could hear the crowd whistling their approval, and looking down on the ice, she saw Luke bent at the waist, doubled over in laughter, while most of the rest of his teammates banged their sticks against the boards circling the ice – Ryan noted Trent wasn’t, but he doubted Emma would.
Flushed, and still more than a bit wide-eyed, Ryan voice was still a breathless whisper, “That means that they approve.”
Laughing and giving him another wink, Emma murmured. “Good to know.”
~*~
After the game had ended and the Blizzard had gotten their asses handed to them, both Ryan and Emma had taken the elevator down to the player’s level. Ryan headed off into the locker room to be with teammates. This was the first time many of them had seen him since he’d left the arena in an ambulance and there was a lot of back patting and discussion when he arrived.
“Gentlemen.” The coach began, once everyone had settled down into their respective locker room stalls. “I hope you’re as ashamed by your effort tonight as I am. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs when the best action we had all night was by Perrault up in the press box.” He paused when the room busted out laughing and Ryan’s cheeks began to burn again. “Incidentally Perrault, get a room!”
The coach continued to talk with the team about how and where they needed to improve, but did commend Luke on the goal he had scored late in the game. Meanwhile, Ryan maneuvered himself over to his cousin’s locker, sitting beside him on the bench.
Soon the coach ended his pep talk, telling the team that they’d get their opponents the next time, and headed out of the locker room to let them get changed back into their ‘street clothes’. As Ryan prepared to exit himself to keep Emma company while she waited to do her interviews, he heard a voice behind him say, “Yeah, we’ll get those homos next time.”
“Do not use those words in here.” Luke said immediately while Ryan shifted back around to face the room, curious to what his cousin was up to.
The player, who Ryan could now see was one of the defensemen, Gabe Gordon if memory served, retorted immediately, “Why, are you queer?”
Luke by this point was standing and half-undressed and he merely raised an eyebrow at his teammate. “And if I was?” Flexing his arms out in front of himself in a silent challenge, Ryan held his breath while he waited to see how this encounter would play out. Luke had already proven himself to be the best player on the team – would his teammates challenge him? Take offense to what he was saying?
Gordon shook his head. “There’s no fucking way you’re queer. You’ve already bedded half of the damn cheerleading squad.”
“I am.” Luke paused and then glanced over at Ryan, asking him, “Que se passe-t-il?”
Ryan knew exactly the word Luke was looking for – Luke was trying to cover for him, to be the bisexual teammate so that if Ryan ever did get back in the locker room, he wouldn’t be harassed. But he wasn’t completely willing to let Luke take that much weight on himself so he answered, “Ambidextrous.”
“Oui, ambidextrous.” Luke shrugged then grinned, not understanding why some of his teammates chuckled soft into their hands. “Does not matter to me.” Luke moved further into the center of the locker room and swung around to face all his teammates. “Does who I bang have any impact on what I do on the ice?”
“Not that I’m aware.” That was Trent who spoke up and if Ryan wasn’t so afraid of blowing his own cover, he’d have hopped across the locker room to hug him.
“Then if anyone has any close-minded comments, keep them to yourself.” With that, Luke turned back to his locker, resuming the process of getting undressed. The locker room remained silent for a long uncomfortable moment before the regular post-game chatter resumed, and after Ryan exhaled, he finally exited, still shaking his head at what Luke had just done.
“Are they going to be ready for me soon?” Emma questioned Ryan as soon as he reached her, recorder already in her hand ready to go.
“Few more minutes I think,” Ryan murmured as he leaned against the wall beside her, knowing she would notice that he was quieter than normal. Before she could call him on it, he told her, “Coach said our little make out session was the highlight of the game.” When Emma started laughing immediately, he grinned and teased, “I think we could stand some more practice.”
With an amused look on her face, she asked, “Practice, eh?” Ryan nodded and she rolled her eyes at him but the grin remained on her face. “We’ll see about that practice when we get back to the apartment.”
Now, how he was viewed in the locker room didn’t seem to matter. He had ‘practice’ with Emma to look forward to!