Chapter 26

Patrick glided around the ice by himself before practice, testing out his knee. All was quiet in the rink with no one else out there with him. It gave him time to think. And despite all the thinking he’d done last night he still needed to do some more. He just couldn’t figure out what had happened with Gabrielle last night.

She’d literally gone from smiling to yelling at him in about half a second. He couldn’t figure it out. What had he done wrong? She’d yelled at him about volunteering her for babysitting, but he didn’t really think that could be it, right? And he wasn’t at all buying her excuse of ‘I don’t do kids.’ She always said that. ‘I don’t do’ insert word or phrase here. It drove him nuts.

She’d used the same phrase when she was trying to avoid dating him. She said it as a defense to keep herself from having to tell him about her past eventually. She always said it when she was trying to avoid telling him about something. What was it this time? What did she not want to tell him now?

Two thoughts hit him at the same time and both were equally unsettling. He just couldn’t think of any other reason. Maybe Gabrielle didn’t want children. That would certainly not work for him because he always had when the time came. Or maybe Gabrielle was pregnant and afraid to tell him. Oh God. That couldn’t be it.

“How’s your knee feeling?” Mike, the team’s trainer, called out interrupting his thoughts.

“A little tight, but no pain,” he called back. He got off the ice and followed Mike back to the training room.

He didn’t have a chance to think about Gabrielle anymore that morning. He was officially cleared to start practicing with the team that morning. He made his way out to the ice again and participated in his first practice in a month with the team. Just pushing through the practice kept his mind off of Gabrielle for a little while.

“How’s Gabrielle doing?” Tazer asked him in the locker room later. He shrugged.

“I haven’t talked to her,” he responded.

“Check out Sharpie digging the manic depressive chick,” Keith yelled over. He shot him a dirty look and chose not to respond to him, because Keither had no idea.

“She wasn’t good last night when I brought her home,” Tazer told him. Patrick looked up at him in surprise.

“You took her home? Did she say anything?” He was hoping for anything that could help him figure out what had gone on last night.

“Sorry, man,” Tazer replied with a shake of his head. Patrick felt the disappointment. “She was throwing up in the parking lot and shaking when I got out to her.”

“I don’t know what happened or what to do,” Patrick said helplessly.

“Just go talk to her.” Yeah, he was going to have to do that.

Patrick left the rink and drove straight towards Gabrielle’s apartment. He had to find out what had happened. If it was because of either situation he’d thought up then they really needed to talk. He called up from the lobby and she buzzed him up. He got up to her apartment and walked through the door only to be met with a woman he’d never seen before. She was putting on a jacket.

“You must be Patrick,” she said with a smile. He nodded as she held out her hand and he took it. “I’m Olivia.”

“Olivia? Gabby’s school counselor,” he said dumbly. He couldn’t help it. He was surprised to see her, or anyone for that matter. She laughed a little.

“Yes, that’s me,” she replied.

“Were you in town?” he asked. She shook her head.

“Gabrielle called me early this morning and I hopped the first plane out of St. Louis to come see her,” Olivia explained. Patrick’s heart dropped. If Olivia dropped everything to fly out to Gabrielle immediately than something really awful must be going on. Olivia must have seen the look on his face. “She’ll be okay if you just hear what she has to say.”

“I will. I’m going to. I just…..it scares me when she gets like this. I don’t know what to do,” he confessed. He watched as Gabrielle walked around the corner looking like she hadn’t slept all night.

“You’re doing exactly what she needs,” Olivia assured him. “It was very nice to meet you.” She moved past him towards the door.

“I’ll walk you out,” Gabrielle spoke up, her voice harsh, like she’d been crying.

He watched as the two of them walked out the door leaving him standing in the entryway. He walked further into the apartment with all intentions of sitting down, but he realized he was too nervous to do that. Instead he began to pace around the open space wondering what was going on. The sound of the door closing caused him to look up and see Gabrielle coming back.

“Are you okay?” he asked moving over towards her. She hesitated for a moment as her eyes darted around the room.

“No,” she finally whispered out. He’d known the answer, but hearing her say it hurt.

“I just don’t know what happened. You were fine and then…..” He let his voice trail off as he searched her face for any clue. None came, and she kept her eyes locked onto a spot on the floor. “Was it the kids? Do you really not like them?”

He watched as her face twisted into complete anguish. He felt so helpless. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he had to know what was going on. She wasn’t exactly being forthcoming right now. Even so he just couldn’t seem to stop talking. He just needed to get it out and see what she said.

“If that’s the case I don’t know what to do. I love them. I want them someday. I’ve always seen myself having a family when I’m ready to settle down. It’s kind of a deal breaker for me. You need to tell me if you don’t want them, Gabrielle. I need to know,” he pushed.

He watched as her expression changed from anguish to grief as he spoke. Then he waited. When she spoke he hardly heard her, her voice was so quiet. He almost asked her to repeat herself, but he was in so much shock that even he couldn’t speak. Had she really just said that?

“I have a daughter.”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth she turned and walked away from him. He watched her retreating back for a moment before he could make himself move. He followed her into her studio where she collapsed down onto the futon in there. He glanced at the easel and took in the painting that was set up there.

He suddenly began to understand, at least a little, about what was going on with Gabrielle when he saw it. In the painting there was a crib in a nursery. A large letter Q was on the wall above it. A woman was also half out the door of the nursery. She had a duffel bag in hand and was walking out of the room. She was also glancing back towards the crib.

“Her name is Quinn. She’s with Rachel,” Gabrielle whispered.










Patrick turned back to me with astonishment all over his face. I couldn’t blame him. He thought I’d told him everything, but I hadn’t. This was something I thought that I would take to the grave with me. I’d never planned on telling a soul. It hurt too much. He moved over to the futon and sat down next to me.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked quietly.

“Because she’s my biggest regret and my biggest failure. I just left her. I let them take her from me and I didn’t put up a fight. I never wanted her and I almost killed myself because of it,” I choked out.

“What are you talking about?” he wondered. I took a deep breath as the most painful memories in my life resurfaced. These were memories I’d never wanted to remember or relive.

“When I was still an addict I used to do awful things just for drugs. Until I met you sex for me was a means for the cocaine or simply happened because I was too drugged out to really know what was going on. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth.”

Patrick remained quiet as he waited for me to explain what that had to do with anything. I needed to take another deep breath before I could continue.

“At a party one night, this guy I knew, Vince, somehow ended up alone with me in a bedroom. I wish I could remember how that happened, but I can’t. I remember him locking the door and me arguing with him about why he did it. He started trying to take my clothes off and I kept shoving him away. He became really angry and started yelling at me about how I gave it up to everyone else so why not him. I tried to get out, but he yanked me back and hit me. He beat me until I couldn’t fight back. Then he raped me as the party raged outside the door.”

I felt each blow as the scene replayed in my mind. I could remember clear as day how the entire incident felt. Every feeling I had then washed over me now. Tears fell from my eyes as Patrick looked at me in horrified silence.

“I ran to Olivia when it was over. She took me to the hospital and called the police. They gathered evidence and I pressed charges. It took over a year, but Vince was convicted thanks to another girl coming forward when she heard about me. He’s been in jail ever since for beating and raping us both.”

“Jesus, Gabrielle,” Patrick whispered, taking my hand in his.

“Just over a month after it happened I found out I was pregnant. I knew Vince was the father because I hadn’t let anyone touch me after that happened. In fact you were the first since then. Anyway, I didn’t want the baby. I didn’t want to carry my rapists child, but my family wouldn’t let me get rid of it. They’re values wouldn’t allow it, so I was forced to have her.”

I thought about Quinn and wondered how I could have ever had those feelings. Common sense told me it was only normal to be feeling how I did back then, but I just couldn’t comprehend that I ever had.

“When I had her I didn’t even want to look at her. People always talk about loving your child as soon as you see them, but that didn’t happen for me. I saw her and saw Vince and what he’d done. For three weeks I took care of her and cried nonstop. Eventually I couldn’t handle it anymore. I’d gotten off of the drugs when I found out I was pregnant, but I needed to escape my feelings. I did them again and overdosed. That was when I almost died.”

I watched as understanding dawned on Patrick. He knew how this part of the story ended. He knew that’s when I left.

“My parents had had enough. I had dragged their name through the mud during the very public trial of Vince. His lawyer called the other girl and me out. He brought up that we were addicts, called us sluts, all to defend his client. Then I was pregnant. Now I’d overdosed and almost died. They took Quinn from me and kicked me out. You know the rest.”

Patrick pulled me into him, up onto his lap, and let me cry. He held me as the tears and emotions that I hadn’t shed all these years poured out of me. I just curled up on his lap and released everything I still had left in me. He just sat there and held me and allowed me to do that.

“I’m so sorry, Gabby. So sorry,” he whispered when I’d become drained.

“I think about her every day,” I told him.

“Of course you do.” I shook my head.

“You don’t understand. It happened in rehab. I fell in love with her. I’ve loved her and missed her every day. I can’t handle what I did to her. I failed my daughter. I love her so much, but I failed her,” I choked out. He put his hands on my face and forced me to look at him.

“You didn’t fail her. If you hadn’t ever loved her, then you would have. Only then would you have failed her. But you do, Gabrielle. Don’t you see? Even if she doesn’t know it, she has your undying love, and that makes her the luckiest girl in the world.” New tears formed in my eyes at what he’d said, but not tears of sadness or pain.

“How do you see things so clearly? How is it that you seem to know, to understand everything that I never could?”

“Because I never had to experience it like you did. And I know you. I see you for who you truly are and I know what you have in your heart.”

He kissed me then, softly, and kissed away the last of my pain. There would always be an ache when I thought of Quinn, but Patrick had once again helped me to come to terms with my past. I had nothing left to hide, nothing to run from. Everything was out, and he was still sitting here with me, kissing me. Olivia was right, like she usually is. Patrick had saved me.

Chapter 25

Patrick and I sat in the family room at the rink before the game that night. I’d been coming in with him and we’d sit down in the room and have dinner while we talked with the rest of the team’s families. I knew Patrick was getting antsy about getting back out on the ice and playing, but I was going to miss doing this when he did.

Playoffs were just around the corner and each game was starting to feel more and more intense. I knew next to nothing about what playoffs would be like, but just listening to everyone around me talk about it was getting me both excited and nervous for them. I’d even become kind of a joke with the girls. They kept telling me if the guys lost out and didn’t win the cup it was a good thing there was a psychologist who could help them get over the disappointment.

Nathan had continued his improvement both inside and outside of school. He loved coming to the games with me and hanging out with Patrick and the team. It kept him from skipping school and getting into trouble outside of it. His grades had even been on an upswing after I’d hooked him up with a tutor.

Gia was also starting to get better. She was starting to come in to my office more often on her own whenever something was bothering her. Even if she just came in to vent I knew it was a good thing because I hadn’t seen a single bandage on her wrist since that one day. We’d also had a meeting with her parents so that they could see what they were doing to her. Once they’d realized the extent of Gia’s hurt and anger they’d stopped all the fighting.

She’d told me they were separated, which made her sad, but also gave her a sense of relief. They’d believed they were doing the right thing by trying to stay together for her, but once they realized it was only harming her, they’d done what was necessary. She was coping just fine.

Patrick and I really couldn’t have been any better. We saw each other almost every day for at least lunch or dinner. He wasn’t travelling with the team since he was injured and it had been nice to have him around all the time. We’d even gone on some double dates with Paige and Harding. Paige loved Patrick and never failed to miss an opportunity to tell me how lucky I’d been to find someone willing to put up with all my shit.

“Where did all these kids come from?” Patrick asked as we watched easily a dozen of them running all around the family room and the area immediately outside of it.

“It seems everyone brought friends tonight,” I agreed. There were definitely more children here at the game tonight than there usually were.

I watched them run around, play mini sticks, and sneak food when their parents weren’t looking. I could see the amused smile on Patrick’s face as he watched them run around and felt a pang of hurt and guilt. I just couldn’t muster up that kind of amusement as I watched them. At one point it seemed like they were crawling all over Patrick and he seemed to be loving every second of it.

As I watched him do his best to play with the kids I knew that being a father would suit him. He seemed to be made for it. He was great with them and the look in his eyes was unmistakable. He loved kids. I should have known that before now with the way he’d talked about becoming an uncle before. Faith was going to pop any day now and he couldn’t wait to meet his nephew.

When it was time for the game to start Patrick and I separated and I went to my seat with the rest of the girls. We met back up downstairs at each intermission, and each time Patrick seemed to be preoccupied with playing. To be honest, as I watched him I just wanted the night to end so I could go home and get away from there.

The game ended and we met back up in the family room. I figured we’d be leaving like we usually did as soon as he came out of the locker room, but that wasn’t the case tonight. Tonight the second all the kids saw Patrick walk in, they wanted to play once again. He said he would just for a few more minutes and I was stuck standing there pretending to love the scene as much as everyone else.

“He’s so great with kids!” Emily, Byfuglien’s girlfriend exclaimed. I forced a smile onto my face and nodded.

“You guys are going to be lucky if you have kids someday,” Dayna, Seabrook’s girlfriend threw in. I started to get more and more upset by the second and just wished for Patrick to get up and say it was time to go.

“You two can babysit my kids anytime you’d like!” Corrine Huet joked. Patrick looked over at me and grinned.

“We’d love to,” he announced. I felt sick and the last remaining bit of smile I’d been managing to keep on my face disappeared.

“Excuse me,” I muttered as I turned to talk out of a room that suddenly felt very small and claustrophobic.

I put my hands over my face and tried to concentrate on my breathing to calm myself down and keep the panic attack from hitting me. Usually that helped, but this time it wasn’t helping at all. I could feel my chest getting tighter even as I struggled to force oxygen into my lungs.

“Are you okay?” I heard Patrick ask. I felt his hand touch my shoulder and I jerked away.

I didn’t answer him and instead ran down the hall and into the bathroom. I locked the main door behind me when I saw I was alone in there and then slid to the ground. I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my forehead on my knees. Just breathe, Gabrielle, in and out. Just breathe.

It took a little time, but I managed to get my breathing under control. When I felt better I got up and splashed some cold water on my face. When I looked up at my reflection in the mirror I could see the strain on my face. And then the anger started. How dare he? How dare Patrick volunteer me for something without asking me?

“Gabby? Are you okay?” I heard him call through the door after a knock.

I turned to glare at the door and the only thing I could think was ‘who do you think you are?!’ I made my way over to the door, unlocked it, and yanked it open. He jumped back in surprise at the violence of my exit. Then he looked confused when he saw the look on my face.

“Don’t you ever volunteer me to babysit anyone’s kids without talking to me first!” I yelled at him. His eyes widened in shock and I could see everyone standing in the hallway halt their conversations to turn and face us. I didn’t care.

“I’m…..I’m sorry…..I didn’t realize it was…..”

“I can’t even look at you right now,” I told him and turned to walk away. My stomach was churning and I felt sick. Then I felt his hand latch onto my arm.

“Hey, hold on. What’s wrong? What did I do?” he asked as I spun around to face him.

“I don’t do kids,” I told him through clenched teeth. My head began to spin with more thoughts than I could vocalize right now. I just wanted to get home, get in front of my easel and paint it out.

“Gabrielle, you’re a school psychologist,” he reminded me.

“They’re not kids, they’re young adults. It’s very different,” I told him as I ripped my arm out of his grasp. I needed to get out of there. I needed to get home and now.

“So what, you don’t like young kids?” he asked.

“Just stop, okay? Stop! I can’t do this. I can’t be here. I can’t be around you. I have to go.”

I could feel my chest tightening up again and I felt like I was going to be sick. Without waiting to hear any sort of response from him I turned and ran down the hallway and out the door into the parking lot. I hoped that the fresh air would help to calm me down, but I was only getting worse.

Too many things were rushing in and out of my head. Too many old conversations. Too many new situations. Harsh words and stupid decisions. Pain. Sadness. Confusion. Loss. Abandonment. I bent over a bush along the side of the rink and began to throw up even as I struggled to breathe.

When I stopped I stood up and let the tears fall down my face. Never once since I’d grown up had I needed a family more than I needed one now. I had no one. Well, I had Patrick if this little fit hadn’t royally screwed that up, but I couldn’t talk to him right now. Now he was the cause of all of these feelings and I couldn’t, just couldn’t, face them right now.

“Hey, I’ll bring you home,” I heard someone say from behind me. I turned to see Jon standing there, keys in his hand.

Now you can add embarrassment to every other emotion running through me. I’d just made a crazy spectacle of myself in front of half of Patrick’s team. Right when I get them to start to like me, I pull a stunt like that. What kind of person am I? Who wants to deal with someone like me?

“You don’t have to,” I told him through the tears.

“I don’t mind. Really. I just want to make sure you’re home safe.” He looked sincere and concerned, so I nodded.

We didn’t talk the entire trip to my apartment. I simply thanked him and then apologized when we got there before getting out and going upstairs. Loxley ran over to me, tail wagging when I walked through the door and I knelt down on the floor, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“I’m so screwed up, Lox. So screwed up,” I whispered into his fur. He gave me a lick in the face and I managed a small smile at him. I took him outside before locking myself up in my studio.

I sat for a moment just dumping different colors onto my palette. I didn’t know what I was going to paint, I just let myself go. I just painted until all the emotions were gone. The sun was coming up and shining into the room in the background, casting an angelic glow around my now finished creation. It had taken me all night with no direction, but now I was looking at a picture that made my heart ache. I picked up the phone and called the only person I could.

“Hello, Gabrielle,” her voice greeted me. It brought on tears and it took me a moment to compose myself enough to speak.

“Olivia, I need you,” I choked out.

I’d never forgotten, but until this moment I’d managed to forgive. Now forgiveness was gone.

Chapter 24

“I really need your help with something,” Patrick confessed. I looked across the coffee table from the chair I was in at him and Burish sitting on the couch across from me in my apartment.

“We really need your help with something,” Adam corrected. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at them.

“Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like this?” I asked, only to have Adam laugh and Patrick roll his eyes at my question.

“She knows us too well,” Adam told Patrick.

“Just hear us out before you judge,” Patrick said. I crossed my arms over my chest and nodded at him to continue.

It had been a little over a month since the confession to Patrick about my past. Thankfully things had worked out with us. He hadn’t judged me and I’d felt myself lightening up about everything. Even my coworkers and Paige, who didn’t know what had happened, were commenting on how different I seemed. They chalked it up to my relationship with Patrick, and while it was that, it was so much more. A weight I’d been carrying for a decade was gone. Well.....almost gone.

I’d found that things in my life almost seemed to magically be better with Patrick in my life. Changes had been going on that I almost hadn’t noticed had happened until they were long past. I could still remember the look Patrick gave me a few weeks ago when I grabbed a bottle of wine and refilled my glass to have a second.

“What?” I’d asked him when I saw him looking at me. He shrugged, but eyed me warily.

“Nothing,” he’d replied.

It wasn’t until I’d taken a sip that I realized what had happened. It had been the first time I’d had a second glass of anything alcoholic since rehab. Even more, it was the first time I’d had any alcohol at all without thinking about my past and the drugs. It was like I’d been freed from something. Suddenly going out to a bar with Patrick and some of his teammates wasn’t scary anymore. I still didn’t get drunk, but the whole idea of alcohol was no longer terrifying.

I’d even found myself happily agreeing on getting together with the other girls. Before I avoided most social contact with people in fear of what they might discover or pick up on. Now it was so nice just to get together with a group of women and talk. I hadn’t known what I was missing. On one occasion I’d even joined them on the dance floor. Patrick had nearly choked on his beer when he saw me out there.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked me after making his way over to me on the dance floor.

“Dancing,” I told him with a smile. He looked like he couldn’t figure out what to say. “Do I look that bad doing it?” He shook his head.

“No, not at all. You look…..wonderful.” I’d grinned at him, and he returned it before moving away to leave me to dance.

It wasn’t until one afternoon when I finished up a painting and looked it over that I saw the true transformation. For what might have been the first time in my life I looked at a painting I’d done and smiled. It was a large house surrounded by fields and a white picket fence. There were two dogs running through a field that looked suspiciously like Lox and Dudley. The sky was a bright blue, sunshine spilling down all over the scene. Oh Lord, Gabrielle, what has happened to you?

Now I was sitting in my living room listening to Patrick and Adam’s proposal in shock. They couldn’t be serious. People actually did things like this? Like I’d promised, I heard them out until they were done talking despite wanting to interrupt and tell them not a fat chance in hell they were getting my help.

“So what do you think?” Patrick asked when they were done.

“I think you both need to find a shrink,” I told them. Adam turned to Patrick.

“I told you she wouldn’t go for it,” he said.

“You were right.”

“Come on. Do it for the poor cripple,” Patrick begged.

I glanced down at his knee, and could see the outline of the brace under his pants. He’d gotten hurt in a game on Valentine’s Day, of all days. To me the holiday meant nothing, but Patrick had really wanted to do something special for me. Instead we’d spent a portion of the night at the hospital while he had his knee checked. I can remember how scared I was when I saw him go down, and how I’d never felt so worried about someone before in my life.

“You’ve played the handicap card way too many times this past month. It loses its effectiveness.”

“We’re doing this for your honor,” Adam tried. I narrowed my eyes at him. What the hell was he talking about?

“I’m sorry?”

“It’s getting back at Tazer for those texts he and Kaner sent you a few months ago. We’ve already gotten Kaner, but it’s Tazer’s turn,” he explained. My jaw dropped.

“You’re doing this to him for me?!” They both laughed and nodded.

“That’s why we need your help. It’ll be even better,” Patrick said. And somehow I found myself agreeing.










Patrick settled into a seat at the bar and Gabby sat down next to him. Normally after a game he was feeling pretty bummed out about not playing, but tonight nothing was going to be able to kill his mood. The rest of his teammates and their girls who had come out filled in around them. After some strategic maneuvering, he and Burs had managed to get Tazer next to Gabrielle.

He and Burs managed to talk the whole table into only drinking hard liquor instead of beer, mostly offering to buy shots. It was all part of the plan. Things wouldn’t work if Tazer was drinking beer. He also managed to track down the cocktail waitress and tell her what they needed, slipping her an extra $200 on top of the tip at the end of the night to ensure it got done.

Every once in a while he heard Gabrielle proudly order another rum and coke for her and Tazer. She was going drink for drink with him. Actually, the joke could have ended there. Tazer was acting like an idiot. Tazer couldn't back down from a challenge though, and he didn't want to be outdrunk by a girl.

Due to what was going on, he and Burs were heavily relying on Gabrielle’s newfound ability to carry a conversation with anyone. So far she was doing fantastic. She’d spent most of the night talking to Jon even over himself. A few times he found himself marveling at the person she’d become in the last month.

When they’d first met, he would have been lucky if she’d said two words to his teammates. Gabrielle had just been reserved by nature, not that he’d minded. Ever since she’d told him everything, and he hated saying this even though he couldn’t think of another phrase, she’d blossomed. The Gabrielle today was not the same Gabrielle he’d first met. She was better.

He felt like he’d taken a lot of her pain away from her by listening and being there for her. He’d done something only Olivia, who he’d love to thank in person someday, had done. He hadn’t judged and had only wanted to help and appreciate. He’d felt for a while that he was quickly falling for Gabrielle, and to learn what she’d gone through in her life and to see how she’d turned out, he was only more proud and falling even more for her. Watching her interact now with his teammates only strengthened that feeling.

“Jesus Christ, I’m shit-canned,” Tazer slurred at one point in the night. It was the moment he and Burs were waiting for.

“Don’t worry, Tazer, we’ll get you home,” Burs told him, standing up from his position across from him. Patrick laughed as he watched Jon’s head bobbing and his eyes struggling to stay open.

“Yeah…..home,” he mumbled. Gabby looked over at him and rolled her eyes, shaking her head. He got up, followed by her, and then Burs and he helped Tazer out of his seat.

“Guess he had too much to drink,” he heard Gabrielle saying to the rest of the group. God, she was playing her part perfectly.

Burs wrapped his arm around Jon’s shoulders and assisted him out of the club. Even though he hated to admit it, Patrick didn’t mind having his arm around Gabrielle’s shoulders. She’d never said a word about wanting to help him walk with his knee, but she knew he was in pain. He kind of liked that she discreetly pretended she just wanted to be snuggled up to him when she was really just trying to help him walk.

They called out their goodbyes to the group, laughing at the jokes tossed in Tazer’s direction about how he couldn’t hold liquor. It was hard not to just lose it right then and there. They finally got him into the car. Gabrielle got into the driver’s seat since he couldn’t drive with his knee, Burs had had a few beers, and Tazer was obviously incapable of driving.

Gabby’s “rum and coke’s” had actually just been coke’s the whole night. All of Jon’s besides the first one had been triples. They’d made sure to give him one normal mixed drink so he wouldn’t be suspicious. Burs sat in the back doing his best to keep Jon awake while Patrick gave Gabrielle the directions. They reached Tazer’s place, and by then he was passed out in the back.

Tazer sort of woke up once they reached home, and Patrick and Burs left him with Gabrielle to entertain him. It was probably more likely the other way around. By the time they were done with their plan, Gabrielle was nearly in stitches with the ridiculous things Jon was saying to her.

“Apparently he’s desperate for a girl to take out on moonlit walks and send flowers to,” Gabrielle announced when they finally walked into the living room they’d dumped them off in while they worked. Burs snorted out his laughter.

“Oh God am I going to have to give it to him about that,” he responded.

Patrick, Burs, and Gabrielle took a short nap with an alarm set to wake them up. Just at sunrise they dragged Tazer outside where everything was set up. Then they set up the camera and waited. Once the sun was up, with it being a weekday, one which school wasn’t in session, people were getting out and about to head to work.

Everyone in the neighborhood stopped to stare at the spectacle in Tazer’s front yard. The three of them laughed as they filmed the expressions on everyone’s faces as they looked out at every piece of furniture from Tazer’s bedroom set up on the front lawn in exactly the same place and distance from each other as it had been inside, with Tazer sleeping in the bed in just his boxers, and no blankets.

A few shook their heads in disgust. A few took pictures of the Hawk’s captain in just his boxers on his front lawn. Still more just honked their horns and laughed as they drove by. It didn’t take long for the commotion to wake Tazer up. They filmed him stirring, rubbing his eyes, and stepping down from his bed, only to pause in confusion when he felt grass instead of carpet. He woke up with a start, looked around at his surroundings before running to the front door only to find it locked.

“That’s what you get for fucking with Gabrielle, you little prick!” Patrick called through the door.

“Fuck you, Sharpie, let me in!” he yelled, trying to cover himself up. Patrick eventually opened the door to let him in, exposing him, Burs, and Gabby doubled over in laughter.

“That was a real nice show you gave the neighbors,” Burs commented as Tazer glared at the three of them.

“You too?” he asked Gabrielle in surprise.

“What can I say? I side with this guy,” she replied jerking a thumb towards Patrick.

“I fucking hate you all,” Tazer growled out. Patrick was really going to enjoy showing this video to the boys in the locker room tomorrow.