11 // Arrangements

I took my lunch break an hour early in order to walk with Patrick and figure everything out. This is both new to us- he never had any idea he was someones father until a few minutes ago, and I've never had to deal with the possibility of sharing Haley- that is, if Patrick even wanted anything to do with her.

We decided to attend a local coffee shop nearby. It was mostly a hangout space for the students at the community college, so it wasn't too busy; but the students there all wanted pictures with him, but promised not to post them or tell for an hour so we'd be gone with plenty of time. We both ordered Venti coffee's, coming out to a little over six dollars.

"I got this, just go find a seat, please," Patrick told him. I nodded and found a table in the corner for two people and waited a moment for him.

Once he sat down, we both stared at each other for a moment; it was completely awkward. I lowered my eyes towards my coffee cup before I brought it up to take a sip, and Patrick sighed as I did.

"How the fuck did this happen?" He asked blankly.

"We were drunk and stupid," I explained.

"Yeah, but I've never gone without a condom my whole life," he told me.

Good to know? I said in my head. "People do stupid shit when they're drunk and celebrating big moments..."

"Like being drafted and weddings?"

"Basically."

We had another awkward pause that we dealt with by both taking sips of our coffee's.

"I'm not sure how this works, because I'm really new to this, as are you, but like, if you want a DNA test or anything, that's cool," I told him.

"Oh, uh, thanks," he said, "do you have any like, baby pictures? I know what she looks like now, but ugh, it'd be cool to see how she used to look."

I unlocked my phone and went to my photos, purposefully scrolling up fast to avoid the photos in the middle and went to the beginning, where there were tons of pictures of Haley along with me, Derick and Kristen, and Jamila. I found one of Haley by herself as she she was coloring.

"She was probably close to 18 months here," I said as I handed it to him.

Once Patrick saw it, he started chuckling. "Yeah, she's definitely mine. She looks exactly like one of my younger sisters as a baby. Cute."

"Yeah, very few people believed she was mine when she was born," I said.

"So, what's she like?"

"Well, she's really into princesses, something Derick encourages way too much..." I sighed, "but she's also really rowdy and active, definitely and handful...but she can't help but spread positive vibes everywhere she goes. She's beautiful and amazing."

"Wow," was all Patrick could get out. His eyes were wide open in disbelief. "I can't believe I have a kid..."

"Yeah, neither could I back when she showed up," I told him.

"What the hell happens now?" he asked.

I shrugged and took a quick sip. "Do you want something to happen?"

"Kat, she's my kid and I wanna be in her life. I can't just unhear this entire conversation," he told me.

I sighed. "I agree, it's just...I don't know how to handle this. I never expected to meet Hales' dad again, and I have no idea how to tell her that you're here when I keep dismissing all her questions about him."

"She's been asking about me?" Patrick asked me.

I nodded. "She's a little girl, all her friends have dads and she wants to know why she doesn't."

Patrick sighed. "I need to meet her, like for real. Not a little 30 seconds conversation again, but like, start forming a relationship with her."

"You really want to do this?"

"Absolutely."

I thought about it before responding. "We have nothing planned next Saturday, so...if you want to meet her then-"

"Yes, totally-"

"Be quiet I'm not done," I quickly warned him. He shut up quickly though. "I'm not just leaving her alone with you. The three of us spend it together, and if it goes well and you still want to be involved...we'll cross that bridge when we're ready."

Patrick was quiet for another moment before slowly nodding. "8am saturday morning, I'll pick you ladies up. Be ready."

"I think you're the one who should be ready, actually."

Patrick chuckled as he stood up. "Don't worry, I'm ready for whatever you two have to offer, no matter what."

I shook my head and smirked while taking another sip of coffee.

It's good Patrick wants to be a dad to Haley, but he has no idea what he's about to get himself into.




A/N: keep reading, things are about to start getting interesting.

Next update: Wednesday, september 2nd.

10 // found

*Kat's POV*

I looked at Kristen after Derick's announcement, both of us having a worried look on. We looked back at him carefully.

"What?" Derick asked us, regarding our questioning looks.

"I think you need to sit down, bro," I told him carefully.

"Why?"

"Sweetie, one of your teammates didn't father Haley..." Kristen calmly told him.

"Oh my goodness, I'm not being crazy, I'm being serious," Derick told us. "We talked at the bar, and he was in Columbus for the Draft the night of our wedding and slept with a girl matching your exact description."

"Lots of girls can look like me.."

"Not just physically, but the rhyming names, being older, and the hockey thing...and Haley is his spitting image," Derick told me.

I stayed quiet as I took in what he had told me:
Patrick Kane was the father of my child. I can't fucking believe it.

"Shit," Kristen said in order to break the silence, "that was unexpected."

"What the hell am I supposed to do now?" I asked, sitting back down then sighing.

"Relax," Derick said walking over my way, "I'll break the news to him for you, and then you two can decide where to go from there, okay?"

"All right..I can't believe this is happening," I sighed as I sat down.

"What's happening?"

The three of us turned our heads and saw Haley making her way downstairs in her pink pajamas that matched her pink cast.

"You're supposed to be asleep," I told her.

"My arms hurting me," she told me.

I sighed and made my way up, but Kristen stopped me, "we can get her, don't worry," she said with Derick nodding behind her.

"Thanks," I told them as they started walking towards Haley.

"All right, princess, let's see what'll turn you into Sleeping Beauty," I heard Derick say as they walked upstairs.

I sighed again. I have no idea what I'm gonna do now.





xxxxxxxxxx


"Hey, Kaner, got a minute?" Derick asked him in the locker room after the morning skate.

"Anytime, bro, whats up?" Patrick asked as he walked over.

Derick had no idea how to put this delicately. The previous night, he had watched Orange Is The New Black in which Daya's mothers boyfriend told Bennett he was the father of her baby in a rather harsh way, but he didn't want to be that way with Patrick. He was just going to make this up as he went along.

"Um...so you know my sister-in-law, correct?" he asked him.

"Of course, I've met her like a million times," he said.

"And Haley?"

"Yeah."

"You like them both, right?"

"Of course!"

"Good! 'Cause you're actually Haley's dad."

Both men froze for a moment, but then Patrick erupted in laughter. "Shit, man...you're funny as fuck. You scared me there!"

Derick erupted in laughter as well. "Yeah, I'm really funny man, that's why Kristen likes me so much, cause I'm a fucking bitch to be around!"

The two men kept laughing some more, until Derick turned serious.

"But I'm not joking, you're Haley's dad. The woman you're drunk ass hooked up with on draft night was drunk Kat. Now you know, do whatever you please with this information."

Derick walked away, leaving Patrick stunned and alone. After a minute, he started walking quickly to the other side of the United Center to find the front office staff, and surely enough, he found Kat going over some paper work.

"Miss Stevens..." he said in hopes of appearing formal to everyone around. Kat looked up and froze for a minute.

"Did Derick talk to you?" she asked him. He nodded.

"So now we should talk, correct?"

He nodded again.

9// lost

Following the Chicago Blackhawks home opener, a group of guys, including Derick Brassard and Patrick Kane, celebrated with post game drinks.

"Shit, hell of a fucking game, Jackson," Patrick Kane told the rookie sitting next to him.

"Thank you, sir," Jackson told him politely.

"Fuck...sir?" Patrick then turned to Derick, "am I really getting that old around here?"

"You aren't that 18 year old anymore, that's all I'll say," Derick chuckled.

A bartender brought a round of drinks to them, everyone but Jackson jumping at the opportunity.

"Can't, I'm still 18," he explained.

"Fuck, it was your first NHL game and you were fucking amazing," Andrew Shaw had told him, "just take one drink, no one will tell."

Jackson thought about it, then sighed. "Fine...peer pressure wins again."

"Fuck yeah!!!!"

As the night went on and the drinks kept coming, and the men went reminiscing.

"Man...rookie's first NHL game, and he was only drafted a few months ago..." Derick said about Jackson. "Hey, remember draft day?"

"Shit, no one had a better draft day than Mr. 1st Overall himself," Shaw said, pointing to Patrick, who put a smirk on his face.

"Yeah man...June 22nd In Columbus... Best day ever," Patrick said, catching Derick's attention.

"Whoa, June 22nd in Columbus? That's where Kristen and I got married!" Derick told him proudly.

"Shit, that's awesome!" Patrick said with a smile.

"Yeah, and Kat got pregnant that night, too," Derick said lowly; he still got upset thinking about the fact that she couldn't remember who she had slept with.

"Damn," Patrick commented. "Well, she wasn't the only one getting fucked that night."

"Really?" Derick asked.

Patrick took a big sip of his drink before continuing. "So get this: after the draft, my cousin got me drunk as fuck. I stumbled back to the hotel and found this smoking chick with a name that rhymed with mine. She was slightly younger than me, but was all over me because I was a hockey player and just got drafted. Damn...brown hair, brown eyes and a good body...such a good fuck. And she had this sexy trampstamp of a black star."

Derick paused and thought to himself: this story seemed way too familiar.

Patrick was drafted the same night as he and Kristen got married.
Patrick had sex the same night Kat did. Neither of them remembered who they slept with.
Kat has brown hair and brown eyes. Haley has blonde hair and blue eyes like Patrick.
Kat says the guy she slept with was a bit older since he was 18. Patrick was 18 and slept with someone a little bit younger.
Kat said the guy told her he was a hockey player just drafted. Patrick said the girl was all over him because he said he was a hockey player who just got drafted.
Both of them said they slept with someone with rhyming names. Kat and Pat.

That's when Derick realized it; the only thing missing was the black star tattoo.

"I have to go...see you guys at practice," Derick said, quickly taking off.

It was a fifteen minute drive home, but he made it close to five with his ferocious driving. After he got the car parked, he saw Kristen and Kar watching TV together; Haley was asleep upstairs.

"Katrina, show me your trampstamp," Derick said sternly, catching Kat off guard.

"Whoa, how drunk are you? She doesn't have a trampstamp," Kristen defended her sister. She then looked at her and saw her scared look, "shit, do you?"

Kat sighed, before standing up and turning around. She pulled her pants about an inch down and lifted up the hem of her shirt, revealing a black star tattoo: Derick couldn't believe.

"What the fuck, Kat," Kristen said blankly as she stared at it.

"I got it when I was 16, and this was the only place on my body where Mom and Dad wouldn't see it," Kat defended herself as she got her clothing back to normal, then turned around at Derick. "How'd you know I had one?" Derick sighed.

"Because...I found out who Haley's dad is tonight...fucking Patrick Kane."

8// Lean On Me

"Hales, check out this page of a unicorn," I said as I flipped through some coloring book pages while she was on her hospital bed.

"I wanna color it....pink!" Haley told me.

"Yo, pink her up," I told Jamila. She got up from the chair and handed her the pink crayon.

"I'm really gonna miss getting to miss work to help take care of you, Hales. Telling people what to do wasn't as fun as I had hoped," Jamila sighed.

"I'll try and get hurt more often," Haley told her.

"Don't even think about it," I told her sternly.

Haley went back to her coloring book, right when Derick and Kristen walked in with two people wearing bright blue scrubs.

"Are you Miss Haley?" One of them asked her.

"Yes..." she answered cautiously.

"Hales, these are two of our friends we just made," Kristen told her, “and they wanna do something really fun with you!”

One of the guys came over to me and leaned in close, “Dr. Ramirez and the anesthesiologist are waiting in the OR, we’ll start surgery right away.”

Haley can’t deal with doctors, she just can’t. She absolutely lost it when I told her that we had to do surgery, and there’s nothing harder for a parent to see their child in so much pain and not be able to do anything about it. I ended up devising a plan with the staff so that we could have the littlest meltdown possible: we’ll take her around the hospital for a tour that will end in the operating room, where she’ll get knocked out by the anesthesia and they’ll start fixing her arm.

"So, we're gonna take you on a fun little tour of the hospital, how does that sound?" one of them asked her.

"I don't want to..." she told them.

"Hales, you can bring Ollie with you," I told her as I handed her Ollie, her pink stuffed owl.

She thought quietly for a moment before she spoke again, "well...Ollie thinks it would be cool to get a tour of the place...so why not."

"All right! It'll be tons of fun!" The guy told her enthusiastically.

Both of them moved up the armrests of the bed so that way they could use that to wheel her around in her bed...and so she couldn't escape.

"I'll see you after your tour ends, sweetie!" I told her before kissing her forehead.

"Bye mommy," she told me as she was wheeled away.

The four of us all waved at her as she was wheeled away. After a moment when we were sure she was gone, Jammy spoke up.

"So...this isn't just a tour...right?"

"Right..."



xxxxxxxxx

"Want more custard?"

"Yes!!!!"

Haley's surgery took about an hour, but afterwards she barely knew what happened because of the anesthesia. Derick went out and got her homemade custard from a local ice cream shop to celebrate.

"Anything for this brave kid," Derick said as he scooped her another bowl.

"All right, I gotta head out and prepare for work tomorrow," Jamila said as she stood up. She went to Haley to hug her, but tricked her and leaned in only to take some of her custard.

"Meanie," Haley told her.

Jamila made her way out the door, as someone was making their way in: Patrick Kane. Jamila smirked at me once she saw him, then left.

"Am I too late?" he asked with a big balloon in one hand and a teddy bear in the other.

"Man, whatsup?" Derick asked him.

"The team heard about what was going on, so we chipped in to get you some fun stuff," he said as he tied the balloon to her bed.

"What do you say?" I reminded Haley.

"Thank you," Haley said as he handed her the teddy bear.

"No problem," Patrick smiled at her, "us blonde hair and blue eye kids have to stick together."

"Thanks, Patrick," I told him.

"No problem, you have a good kid, why wouldn't I do something nice for her?" Patrick said to me.

"Ill show you out, buddy," Derick told him, then leading him out of the room.

It was just us girls and Haley, but she was busy with her custard, so Kristen decided to say something to me.

"He's totally daddy material...both kinds."


xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Thanks for coming out here, it really means a lot," Derick told Patrick.

"It's no problem, man," Patrick said. "I mean, I obviously know you and Kristen good, and I've met Kat and Haley and they're nice, too."

"Yeah...I did a good job of picking a wife," Derick smirked to himself.

"Yeah, and It's helping me out, too."

"Oh really? How?"

"I'm engaged," Patrick started explaining, "and my fiance' really likes kids. And I don't know...I'm not used to being around little kids, and Haley's cool, so if she helps make a good man out of me, that's cool...you know?"

Derick laughed as they got to the entrance of the hospital. "Don't worry, you'll be daddy material in no time, bro."

7// Make It Better

"Damn it, Derick! We have to get to UIC! Hurry the fuck up!" I shouted upstairs to him.

"I thought we couldn't curse in front of Hales?" Kristen asked me as she helped get Haley ready.

"Fuck off."

Derick finally was ready and came running down the stairs. "Sorry, I had to shave real quick."

"No you didn't, asshole," I told him.

"Calm down," Kristen told me from behind.

"Damn it, I gotta get to her appointment."

"We know, and we're gonna get there."

I sighed, "whose car are we taking?"

"Mine," Derick said, "now lets go."


It was a fifteen minute ride, but it felt like a million minutes. Haley kept her head on my shoulder the whole time; if anyone was morr scared than me, it was her. She doesn't like doctors or hospitals, and the thought of surgery would be too much to handle. I just need the best to happen for her.

Jamila met us at the hospital to help. Haley went for an x-ray first thing, which wasn't too bad since the technician wasn't one of her doctors from earlier. Afterwards, we waited in the Pediatric waiting room for the images to be read. The waiting room was kid heaven: a flat screen tv that was on Disney Channel, a fish tank full of small little fish, a bookshelf and a small little coffee table for other stuff. Haley found a book she was into, so she sat by the fishtank reading.

"So..." Derick began, "home openers next week. If she needs surgery, you guys still gonna come?"

"Shut up," I told him, "this is about Haley, not you."

"Yeah, Kat doesn't wanna think about her little hockey crush right now," Jamila said with a sly smirk.

"Shut the fuck up," I silently gritted through my teeth.

"Ew," Derick commented.

"Which one?" Kristen asked me with a huge smile.

"None of them," I said.

"The Haley look-a-like," Jamila said.

"You need to learn how to shut up right now," I quickly told her.

"Wait...who?" Derick asked.

"Oh! That Kane guy, right?" Kristen asked. Ever since Haley met Patrick, Kristen's thought it would be funny to tell everyone he's her dad, and Jammy has gotten in on it as well.

"Guess Kat loves everyone with blonde hair and blue eyes," Jammy snickered.

"Not if he's my teammate she won't," Derick said.

"I hope both of you go to-"

"Ms. Stevens?"

All our heads turned to the door, where Dr. Ramirez stood asking for me.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know her father was here today as well, I don't believe we've met," she said while looking at Derick.

"He's my brother-in-law," I quickly explained.

"My apologies," she quickly explained. "If I could please get a moment with you," she said before she led me back with her.

One I left, Derick left out a big sigh. "Guess I can add her to the list of people who think I'm Haley's dad..."

Kristen shot him a hard look. "Now's not the time to be a judgemental prick."

Jammy picked up a magazine and started flipping through it. "A man isn't an essential part in a young woman's life." Derick turned towards her coldly, then rolled his eyes.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ramirez took me back into an office and showed me a computer with x-rays.

"These are Haley's from a few days ago," she explained, then moved ahead a couple images, "and these are the ones from today."

"What's the difference?" I asked her.

"Exactly: there is none," she told me, causing me to sigh. "There's really no other option than surgery."

I rubbed my temples. "How early will it be?"

"I have an opening at 2:30 tomorrow."

"That early?"

"I'm afraid so," she said. "I'll give you a few minutes to explain this to Haley, but I'd like you both back in here to go over the plan for surgery soon."

"Will do," I said sadly before I walked out.

Upon walking out, Jammy, Derick and Kristen quickly stood up. They looked at me with hopeful eyes, and I just shook my head, before walking past them and sitting next to Haley.

"Hi mommy," she said once she saw me. She put the book down and I picked her up and placed her into my laugh, then sighed: this was going to be so hard.

"Hey, sweetie...we really need to talk."

6// thirty second phone call

"All right, so Brad wants to shoot his part tomorrow during the pre-season opener, but other than that, all we have left to shoot is Kane," I said as I went over film work for the new campaign with Ayela, one of my coworkers.

"He just got here for practice, so we can probably hit him up real quick," she told me.

"Let's go then."

We made our way to the lower level, near the player locker room. Out in the hallway, we saw Patrick grabbing a stick.

"Mind if we borrow you for a quick second?" I asked him. He turned towards me, then smiled.

"No problem, how can I help?" he asked us.

"You've heard of the new Whats Your Goal campaign we're doing, right?" Ayela asked him.

"You mean the one Kat thought of?" Patrick said with a smirk towards me. "Of course, it's all anyone here can talk about because it's so brilliant."

I really hoped I wasn't blushing, please no.

"So, we were just wondering if we could film you real quick, is that okay?" I asked him.

"Of course," he smiled.

We grabbed the camera man, and Patrick did his thing.

"My goal," he said into the camera, before turning away to grab a stick and then back, "is to make every night showtime."

"And cut!" I said with a smile. "That was great, thanks so much."

"Not a problem," he told me, "make sure to tell the little kiddo that her look a like says hi."

"Will do," I told him as he walked away.

I expected to go straight back to our office, but Ayela was giving me a weird look.

"Can I help you?" I asked her.

"You've been working here only a month and you already got a player in love with you," she said, "I just can't believe it."

"Are you being serious?" I asked her. "The dude has a girlfriend, and we just met. He totally isn't in love with me."

"Patrick Kane hasn't been known for being the most fateful boyfriend," she told me, before turning around and walking back.

I shook my head and began following her, but stopped when I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. Once I got it out, a wave of panic hit me.

It was Haley's school calling.

"Hello?" I answered nervously.

"Mrs. Stevens?" A female voice asked.

"Miss Stevens," I told her, "what's going on?"

"I'm Michelle Patacki, head nurse at Kennedy Elementary School," she explained. "Haley got into an accident outside during playtime and we had to take her to the emergency room."

"My six year old is in the emergency room!?"

"She got really hurt and we needed to act fast, she's at UIC and I alerted paramedics to be on the look for you."

"All right, thank you for your time."

After I hung up, I started calling Jamila while also sprinting to the parking lot.

"Yoooo," she said upon answering.

"Please tell me you're free," I pleaded.

"Whoa, what's wrong?" she asked me.

"Haley's school called, she got hurt during playtime and they're taking her to the ER."

"Where at?"

"UIC."

"I'll meet you there ASAP."

Once I got into my car, I called Chris to let him know of the situation; he was really understanding and told me to take all the time I need. The only people I didn't tell yet were Derick and Kristen, because I knew they'd want to come even though they couldn't afford to since Derick had practice and Kristen had a deadline for the tribune.

It was a ten minute drive to UIC because of the slight traffic, but luckily once I got out of my car, I saw Jammy rushing to the entrance along with me.

"Damn it, I really hoped you beat me," she told me as we hurried inside.

As we made our way to the front desk, I was thankful I didn't hear any screams; Haley was doing okay.

"How may I help you?" the lady at the front desk asked me.

"My name's Kat Stevens, my daughter Haley Stevens was brought here by her elementary school," I explained.

"Ah, yes," she said immediately, "she's over in the north of the ER unit, room 124."

"Thank you so much," I told her as Jammy and I took off running.

The ER was surprisingly filled up today, but I could care less about them all: Haley was the only one on my mind. We ran through the hallways as fast as we could until we got to her room, and we ended up bursting in, only to see Haley holding tight onto a fleece blanket with a nurse by her side.

"Mommy!" she shouted upon seeing me.

"Baby, what happened!?" I asked her as I ran over and kissed her forehead.

"I fell off the monkey bars outside," she explained before lifting up her blanket to show me her injured; I gasped.

"Holy shit," Jamila said upon seeing it.

Haley's bone in her right forearm broke through her skin, one of her bones was showing.

"We administered a dosage of Morphine orally once she got here," the nurse explained, "and right now, we have a pediatric surgeon as well as an Ortho surgeon going over the treatment plan."

"Thank you so much," I told the nurse as she got up to leave.

"No problem," she said with a smile, "she's one tough kid, but she's wonderful as well."

"I know," I said as I slowly ran my fingers through Haley's soft blonde hair.

The nurse was nice, and Haley liked her. Then again, nurses were never the problem.

"How you feeling, kiddo?" Jamila asked.

"My bone is out of my skin, how do you I'm feeling?" Haley asked rhetorically. The two of us both laughed at her sassiness. Then, two females with white cloaks came into the room. Upon seeing them, Haley started hiding her head behind me the best she could, all while using her left hand to hold onto me tight.

"Good morning. My name is Dr. Ramirez, head of Orthopedics," one explained to us.

"And I'm Dr. Capshaw, co-chair of the Pediatrics department," the other one explained.

"I'm Kat, Haley's mom, and that's Jamila, one of her aunts," I explained.

"Nice to meet you both," Dr. Ramirez said. "Well, we've been looking over this case quite extensively, and luckily, due to the area of the break, we believe that it should go back in on its own within the next two days as long as we immobilize it, and then we can cast it for six weeks just like any normal fracture."

"That's fantastic!" I said with a huge smile.

"However," Dr. Ramirez said, making my smile fade, "if by chance it doesn't go back in on its own, we will have to surgically repair it immediately."

Upon hearing that, Haley started whimpering and holding onto me tighter.

"Shhh, it's okay, baby," I cooed to her softly.

"We're writing her a note to have her stay home from school the next two days, and Saturday afternoon at 1 we want to see her again to see what our next step will be," Dr. Capshaw explained.

"She'll need a constant caregiver, especially for personal hygiene," Dr. Ramirez informed.

"I have fridays off, so I can take her then," Jammy told me.

"All right, a nurse will be in soon to immobilize her arm and then she'll be good to go," Dr. Capshaw told us, "we'll see you again Saturday afternoon."

"Thank you so much," I told them. As they left, Haley's grip on me loosened. "Don't worry, you'll be okay, I promise."


xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"All right, we're gonna get you in bed, and then you'll get some ice cream," I told Haley as I helped her out of the car: her arm was absolutely immobilized, she couldn't even move it if she tried.

"Mint chocolate chip!?" Haley asked me.

"Whatever you want, sweetie," I told her as we walked through the door.

The first thing we saw as we walked in was Derick and Kristen sitting on the couch looking nervously, but they shot towards us as the door closed.

"Hi Uncle Derick and Aunt Krissie," Haley smiled as we walked in.

"Sweetheart, what happened to you!?" Derick asked as he and Kristen practically ran over.

"I fell at school," Haley told him.

"I'll fill you guys in once we get her settled," I told them.

"What can we do for you, sweetheart?" Kristen asked.

"Mommy told me I could get some ice cream!" she replied excitedly.

"I'll get it right now," Kristen told her as she walked over to the kitchen.

"Come on, sweets, let's get you up in bed," I told Haley as I helped her up stairs.

It took us about five minutes to get her fully situated, and once I was done Kristen joined us to give her ice cream.

"Thanks, aunt Krissie," Haley said with a smile.

"No problem, babe," Kristen told her, "just let me know if you need anything else."

As Haley nodded, I kissed her forehead. "We'll be right down stairs if you need anything," I said before we walked out. "Thanks," I told Kristen once we were out of the room.

She ignored me and walked straight downstairs. It caught me slightly off guard at first, but I shrugged it off and followed her to see her and Derick sitting together on the couch.

"She fell off the money bars at school and got a compound fracture," I started explaining, "I'm with her all day tomorrow and Jammy has her friday since the doctors are optimistic that it'll heal on its own. We go back Saturday afternoon and if it doesn't, then she'll need surgery."

They both looked at each other for a moment, then Derick sighed. "Thanks for letting us know."

"No problem."

"Though, we would have prefered you to tell us when it actually happened, though."

I fucking knew it.

I turned around and sighed. "Well, I'm sorry I didn't tell you, mom and dad. Oh wait, you guys aren't her parents, are you?"

"Kat, come on," Kristen sighed.

"No, she's my kid, I'm the one who's supposed to take off when she gets hurt, not you guys," I told them.

"You still should have told us," Derick said.

"She's our fucking niece, the only one we got," Kristen spoke, "if something's wrong with her, we gotta know."

"And you do know," I said.

"Yeah, like a million hours later," she said.

"Way to be dramatic," I rolled my eyes, "but be honest: if I told you about it after I got the call, you would have dropped everything to come be with her."

"Well duh."

"See, that's the thing, that shouldn't happen! I'm her mom, and when something goes wrong with Hales, I need to be the one dropping everything. I don't need you two getting in trouble at work because of a child that isn't even yours."

Derick looked like he was going to say something, but got inturupted by Haley.

"Mommy!" she shouted from her room. I sighed.

"Be right up, love," I shouted back to her. "Id you guys are free Saturday, then I want you at the appointment. There's a boundary between aunt, uncle and guardian, and I need her to have a different relationship with you guys than me."


With that, I left them and went upstairs to Haley.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kristen lay her head on Derick's shoulder, thinking about everything Kat had told them.

"We just want what's best for the two of them," she thought out loud.

Derick slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, but right now, I think this is just something that needs to be dealt with without us and within their little, incomplete family."

5// backyard-igans

"I got up twenty minutes late, and now I'm rushing like a menstrating bitch to a bathroom to get ready," I said on my bluetooth to Jamila as I scrambled around my room to find converse to wear. "You should really by a watch, it could come in handy for you," Jamila told me. "Shut up," I told her with an eye roll. "What's on your schedule for today?" "Getting an incoming high school freshman into shape for baseball season, followed by high school football player who was kicked off his team for being a washed up alcoholic, OH! And I got roped in to teaching a swimming class to people Hales' age," she told me. I chuckled. "You sound so excited about it all," I commented "Oh, I'm fucking bursting," she told me with her casual tone of sarcasm. "You should bring Hales over here before you three leave soon." "Can't. she's coming with us," I told her. "Apparently, there's a lot of kids on the Hawks team and Derick's hoping she'll make more friends." '"Damn it, I don't wanna go to work today," Jamila told me. "I wanna sit on my couch, eat my food, drink and binge on Grey's Anatomy," "No one watches Grey's ever since April and Jackson fucking ran off together," I told her bitterly. "I don't know where the fuck you get your information from but that's extremely wrong," she told me. "Whatever," I told her; now's not the time to get into the discussion of my Grey's Anatomy boycott. "I gotta get ready, Derick will freak if we show up late." "Oh no, a bunch of hockey heads will eat all the meat without you, how ever will you survive?" "Shit, you really aren't in the mood for today..." "It's a damn Saturday and I have to go to work, of course I'm not in the mood." I chuckled again, "You'll survive," I told her before I hung up. We had a Team Barbecue to attend at the Coach's house, as a way for the players and their families to bond together for the upcoming season. I was expecting to stay home with Haley today, but Derick told me he wanted us to come as well. Now, I'm hauling ass trying to get ready to leave on time. I got Kristen helping Haley so we don't have another outfit disaster like on the first day of school again, and Derick's doing whatever Derick's do. I settled on wearing a black tank top with jean shorts and black converse. As I put on my sunglasses, the door shot open with Haley running in. "You're going slow!" she told me dramatically, wearing jeans shorts as well along with sandals and a Disney Princesses t-shirt. "Watch you attitude," I warned her. "But it's true!" she told me, "Uncle Derick keeps saying it!" I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Come on, let's go so he stops talking," I told her as we walked out and downstairs where we saw Kristen sitting down while on her phone and Derick pacing around the living room. "We're ready!" Haley shouted with a smile. "Bout time," Derick mumbled while giving me a dirty look; I rolled my eyes as we walked out of the house and into the SUV, making our way to the Coaches house. xxxxxxxx

I don't think I've ever felt this uncomfortable in my life.

Everyone here was a big part of the team in some way, and I felt like a big elephant in the room as I didn't know anyone and I was the only sister-in-law around. I found myself sitting down at a picnic table by myself, sending texts to Jamila that got no response due to her schedule, but it was better than looking like I had nothing to do. Haley was making friends though, so that's all that matters.

As I was trying my best to ignore everything, someone decided to stop by and take a seat next to my picnic table.

"Haven't I seen you lurking around before?" a familiar face asked me.

"Yeah, I just got a job with the organization recently," I told him, "and I'm pretty sure I've seen you around..."

"Patrick Kane," he told me with a smile, "if that rings any bell."

"Oh, Kat Stevens, if that rings any of your bells," I told him. We both laughed for a minute.

"So, are you a girlfriend or fiancee?" he asked me.

"Neither," I replied, "I'm a sister in law."

"Really? For who?"

"Derick Brassard."

"Brassy? Lucky girl," he told me. "He seems pretty cool.

I shrugged. "He's decent, I guess..."

Patrick laughed. "Well, If you're gonna be here, you should do some bonding with the team family."

"I'm the only sister-in-law here, I got nothing in common with anyone else here,"  I told him.

He was silent for a moment, then pointed across the yard to two women. "Over there is my girlfriend Leslie with Jonathan Toews' girlfriend Ashley. Go talk to them, you'll love them."

I sighed, "you're pretty pushy, man."

"Nothing wrong with pushing," he said with a smile.

I rolled my eyes, getting off of the picnic table and heading over to the other girls, who immediately took notice to me.

"Hey, are you a new wife or girlfriend?" the one with long, brunette hair asked me.

"Um....I'm new, but that's about it," I told them.

"Huh?" the one with blonde hair in a bob asked.

"Sister-in-law of one of the new players," I explained, "Kat Stevens."

"Leslie Nelman, I'm Patrick Kane's girlfriend," the blonde told me.

"And I'm Ashley Taylor, Jonathan Toews' girlfriend," the brunette told me.

"Nice, so how long have you been dating them?" I asked them.

"We met at a bar almost two years ago after the lockout ended," Ashley explained. "I work as a bartender."

"And we met after he won his second Stanley Cup on vacation in Mexico," Leslie told me.

"Nice."

"So, who's your family?"

I went over and pointed at Derick and Kristen, who were making their way around the yard meeting with people. "Derick, he just got traded from New York."

"Oh yeah, he does pretty good at practices," Ashley commented.

"So, what about you? What do you do for a living?" Leslie asked me.

"I actually just got a job with the organization, I'm with public relations and marketing," I explained.

"Awesome!" Ashley said with a smile, "the girlfriends and wives actually do a lot with them because of charities and stuff, looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other!"

"That's cool!" I said with a smile aswell. "Uh...I'm gonna head back now, but it was cool meeting you!"

"Yeah, see you later!" Ashley told me; Leslie kept quiet as I made my back to the picnic table where Patrick was at with a smirk.

"See? Socializing isn't too bad," he told me.

"Fuck off," I told him with an eye roll.

"You're welcome," he laughed.

I was about to give him a retort, but Haley came running up so my attention went to her.

"Can I get ice cream?" she asked me, "everyone else is."

"Did you finish all of your lunch?"

"Yes!"

"Even the veggies?"

Haley stayed quiet, then looked down to her feet, causing me to sigh. "Hales, you know the rules."

"But mom!"

"No buts, you know the rules, you have to eat everything for dessert."

"Whoa," Patrick stepped in, catching both of our attention, "today's a special day, why not bend the rules for one day?"

"Yeah, mommy," Haley said with complete sass, even putting her hands on her hips, "It's a special day."

"You need to watch yourself," I warned her.

"Come on, mommy!" she started begging, "I always eat my veggies every night, this is my first time not!"

"Come on, cut her some slack," Patrick told me with a smile.

I thought about it for a moment, then sighed. "You can get one bowl, but that's it until dinner tonight."

Haley grew a big smile on her face. "Thank you so much!!!!" She ran over and hugged me quick, before looking back at Patrick. "Thank you for helping me."

"No problem, kiddo," he smiled at her, "us blonde haired-blue eyed kids gotta stick together."

"I've never met anyone else with blonde hair and blue eyes before!" Haley told him excitedly.

"Really?" Patrick asked her, shocked. "What about your-"

I quickly started shaking my head. I knew exactly what he was going to say: "what about your dad?" We're having a good day, and I don't want to get into the topic of him. Luckily, Patrick caught on and didn't finish his sentence, but just smiled at her.

"Blonde hair and blue eyes are supposed to be rare, so I guess we're lucky to have met," he told her instead. Haley smiled really big, before running off to get ice cream.

"Thank you so much," I told him.

"No problem," he said, "I'm not positive what's going on, but whatever it is, I'll respect it and mind my own business.

I was about to say something, when I heard a faint "Patrick!" being shouted across the yard. We both turned to our left and saw Leslie calling him over.

"I think that may be my cue to go," he told me. "but I'll see you around the United Center."

"Yeah, totally," I agreed.

We smiled and waved at each other as he left, and Kristen came to replace him with two red cups in hand which were filled with I presume would be alcohol. I gave her a weird look.

"Derick's driving back home," she told me.

"Thank God," I said as I grabbed the cup and took a sip.

"So, you and Hales are bonding with Patrick Kane?" she asked me.

"Yeah," I told her, "he's pretty cool, and Haley's so fascinated that he looks like her."

"Really?" she asked me with a smirk. "Maybe that's your baby daddy."

I rolled my eyes, "shut the fuck up, don't even joke about that.

Kristen cocked her head, "you never know, little sis."

She then walked away from me. I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head; she was being crazy. I didn't meet Patrick until last month, there's no way. Haley's dad is probably roaming around taking advantage of other girls. But it's not Patrick, he isn't that type of guy.

4 // introduction

*Jammy's POV*

I smirked down at my phone as I read a text from Kat; it was her first day and she already was crushing on one of her coworkers- sort of, they sort of worked together...It's a long story. She also made sure to send me a picture this morning of Hales on her way to school. I was there for her first day of pre-school and Kindergarten, but I had an early meeting with a new client today so I couldn't make it.

As I stretched out, a slim tall girl with brown eyes and brown hair walked up to me.

"Excuse me, Miss Brenner?" she asked me timidly.

"You can call me Jamila," I said with a chuckle as I stood tall. "And you must be Sarah?"

"Yep," Sarah said with a smile. We shook hands before we began walking over to the equipment.

"All right, so we'll have a solid one hour of cardio with a bit of stretching to cool off," I told her. "For the warm up, we'll just do jump ropes for a couple minutes to get the heart rate up."

Sarah nodded as she grabbed a jump rope off of the hooks.

As our session went by, I quickly noticed something about her that was different than my previous clients back in New York. By the end of the session, she confirmed my thoughts. As we went over to the water jug and hydrated, I put my hand on my hip and looked at her hard.

"What's your deal?" I asked her.

"Huh?" she questioned.

"You're incredibly in shape," I told her, "most of the people I've worked with were out of shape due to illness or injury, but you don't seem to have anything holding you back. Whats up?"

Sarah sighed, before she sat down on the bench nearby. "I'm a detective on Chicago PD's Intelligence squad," she explained.

"Wow, that sounds really cool. Good job," I told her.

"Thanks. They bumped me up from patrol about two years ago, and I've loved every minute of it," she said.

"Well, if you're a cop, you're clearly already in tip-top shape."

"Not exactly. I just got off of maternity leave a while ago-"

"Oh, congratulations!" I said excitedly. She looked a little embarrassed.

"I didn't keep the baby," she explained quietly, "I did surragacy for a friend who had cancer growing up and became infertile. Besides, if I actually got pregnant, no way my boyfriend would let me keep the baby."

"Pretty sure he can't do that," I told her, "but continue on."

"So yeah, I went back to work like two weeks ago, and Immediately we got hit up with a rape chain."

"A rape chain?"

"There was like a whole fucking gang of people who would rape girls around the city and use a knife to leave a scar across their right cheeks, the mastermind turned out to have murdered a few victims, too."

This is why I do Personal Training- I don't deal with that type of scary ass shit. The only time I wanna deal with that is when I'm watching NCIS thank you very much.

"But yeah, my partner and I were in a highway chase with one of the accomplinces and it ended up with me chasing him on foot," she continued to explain. "I caught him, but it was such a fucking battle, and it didn't used to be!"

"So, you just have high standards for yourself?" I asked her.

"I'm protecting the greatest city in the world, of course I have high standards!" she said.

"I mean, I think you're in great shape, but...if you wanna come here and pay me to help you, I won't stop you," I told her.

A devious smile appeared on her face. "I'll see you in a week at the same time," she told me.

"See you then, Miss Detective."



*United Center, Kat's POV*

I found the conference room relatively quite quick. Take that, Derick.

I waited in silence for five minutes along with a few other people, until a tall guy wearing a suit literally hopped into the room. He was clearly young, deep blue eyes, gelled blonde hair and a vibrant vibe.

"Welcome to a new season, coworkers!" he said to us with a gigantic smile. "As most of you know, I'm Chris, but because we have some new people here, let's just go around and introduce ourselves."

One by one, everyone went around in a circle introducing themselves like we used to back in elementary school. Most of them with veterans around the office, but a few were new like me.

"My name is Kat," I said when it was my turn. "I got my Communications B.A recently, and I got lucky enough to find this job shortly after my daughter and I moved her, and I'm excited to start."

I chose not to say anything about Derick and Kristen; it's my first day, I don't want them to know I have connections with the team and view me as that bratty girl living off of someone else's fame. Yeah, they helped me land the job, but I plan on keeping the job because I know what I'm doing.

"Alright, so here's the skinny," Chris said, "it's our job to make the Hawks look good, and to help interact them with fans through good advertising and campaigns. Last year that was easy because they won the cup, but LA just HAAAAAD to beat them in overtime back in June," he paused and shook his head. "So, now we got to think of a new campaign to use. Something that captivates the attention of people, that makes them glad that they're Blackhawks fans, makes them feel comfortable with these men, and of course, that we can spin alongside the players themselves. You got an idea, we write it up on the whiteboard. Best idea wins, and we spend the rest of the day planning advertisement opportunities."

As a group, we went back and forth on ideas. Some of them were good, some were impressive, some were just plain awful. After a while, it got quiet as people were out of ideas. That's when I got one.

"What's your goal," I said out loud, all eyes on me.

"Huh?" Chris asked me.

"Well like, the past few seasons we've gone bu the slogan 'one goal' as in our motto to win the stanley cup. What if the season, we do a what's your goal campaign. We could like, get videos of the players stating their goals for the upcoming season and turn it into a commercial. And for the fans, we can create a facebook page where they can send in their goals and we could actually make a few of the goals happen. Like, i don't know, say a kid has cancer and wants to skate on the ice with Jonathan Toews as their goal, we could make that happen. It's a fun idea that we could spin in multiple directions, all of them making the team look good while also making fans feel good."

The room went quiet for a moment after I finished explaining, making me nervous. Then, a big smile appeared on Chris's face.

"Excellent," he said, writing it on the board. Then, he looked back at me, "welcome to the PR department, Miss Stevens. I have a feeling you'll fit in just well."


The morning went on, until I finally got to my lunch break at eleven. With my bag in hand, I headed towards the 100 level to watch the team practicing alongside Kristen, who was taking pictures for her article.

"How's the first day?" she asked me.

"Great, they're using my idea for the campaign this season!" I said excitedly.

"Kat, that's great!" she told me with a smile. "See, this is a great place to be. I have a feeling working here will change our lives for the better."

I tore my sandwich in half and gave one to Kristen; I knew she was skipping lunch to work extra, it's just the kind of stuff she does. "What do you mean change our lives?" I asked her. "You work for one of the most famous papers in the world and your husbands a hockey player, your life can't get any better."

"Fine, maybe your life will change for the better," she corrected herself before taking a bite.

I sighed before replying, "yeah, for Haley's sake, I really hope it does."n

3// past and present collide

*Kat's POV*

"Bitch, get up."

I grabbed on tighter to my pillow that I had smooshed against my face and groaned as I heard Kristen above me.

"Go away," I mumbled out.

Then, she literally kicked my ass.

"Ow! What the fuck is wrong with you?" I asked, lifting my head to her.

"Today's your first day of work and Haley's first day of school, get up!"

"What time is it?"

"Six."

I frowned at her. "Haley doesn't need to be at school until eight-thirty and I don't have to be at work until nine, calm the fuck down."

"Kat, be serious," she told me as she took a seat at the edge of my bed. I sighed and sat up to listen. "It's your first day, you have to be prepared and make a good impression. You said it yourself, you don't wanna live off of Derick and I forever; here's your chance to make that happen. I don't want you blowing it."

I brought my hands up to my head and ran my fingers through my hair as I yawned. "Make me a cup of coffee and I'll start getting ready now. But regardless, I'm not leaving this bed until 6:30."

"Deal," she said with a smile, quickly getting off of my bed rushing out. As she did, I did a quick cat-stretch, right before flopping back down onto my bed and waiting.

***

I downed my second cup of coffee in the last thirty minutes, then looked at the mirror in front of me: Mydark  hair flowed down my shoulders, straight and non frizzy due to my shampoo. I had a white button up long sleeved shirt on, along with black dress pants and black dress shoes. I grabbed a Hawaiian perfume Kristen and I both got and sprayed a bit on, then smiled in the mirror.

"I look like a fucking star," I said with a smirk.

"Hey, Kat," I heard Derick say out in the hallway. With my empty coffee cup in hand, I made my way out there and saw an uneased Derick.

"What's up?" I asked him.

"We have a slight problem," he told me.

"What kind of problem?" I asked him, becoming a bit worried myself.

"Come take a look," he said, leading me down the hall to Haley's room. 

As he opened the door, I looked and saw that Haley was in her blue Cinderella dress we got her for Halloween last year, along with other jewelry. I smiled as it reminded me of back when she was in pre-k and kindergarden and her teachers would send me pictures of her playing dress up; she always wanted to dress up as a princess, always.

 Then, I snapped out of it and realized she was six and going to First Grade, and they don't do dress-up there. I took a step into her room and cleared my throat to grab her attention.

"Morning, Hales. Whatcha wearing?" I asked her.

"I'm wearing my Princess dress to school!" she told me with a huge smile. I gave a knowing look to Derick- this was gonna be a battle.

"Honey, you can't wear your princess dress to school," I told her. Her face completely fell, like I just killed an animal right in front of her.

"Why not?" she asked me.

When it came to parenting, I knew I had to be tough. However, there's a time and place to be tough and firm; I've seen a parent treating their kid tough and the kid ending up awful too many times, I'm not letting that happen to Haley. I know when I need to be flat out tough and firm- this isn't one of those times.

"If you wear your princess dress to school, all your classmates will know that you're a princess!" I told her.

"What's wrong with them knowing the truth?" she asked.

"Well, if they know you're a princess, they could get jealous of you."

"They can?"

"Yep, and it could be hard to make friends when people are jealous of you."

Haley was silent and looking down at her feet for a moment, then back towards Derick and I. "So, I shouldn't wear my princess dress so I can make friends?"

"Exactly," I told her. She then shrugged her shoulders.

"Okay! Can you help me pick out a new outfit please?" she asked me. I gave her smile.

"Of course, love," I told her, before turning to Derick, who was extremely surprised.

"How did you-" he began.

"Once you and Kristen have a kid, you'll get it," I told him, then handing him my empty coffee cup.

"All right then," he said with a half smile. "I'll go help Kristen with breakfast. See you soon."

As he left, I went over and help Haley pick out a brand new outfit: jean shorts, a purple t-shirt with hearts, stars and peace signs all over the front and light up sketchers; she even got me to put her hair in a bun for her. Looking at her, I couldn't believe how grown up she looked, though I kept that to myself.

"Ready for breakfast?" I asked her.

"Yes!!!!" she said with a huge smile as she grabbed my hand so we could go down to the kitchen, being greeted by her Aunt and Uncle along with lots of pancakes.

"Morning, sunshine," Kristen said with a smile.

"Morning," I told her.

"I was talking to my niece," she harshly told me; I just rolled my eyes.

"Aunt Krissie, I LOVE pancakes!" Haley said as she looked at the table covered in pancakes.

"It's your first day, you need a good breakfast," Kristen told her with a smile.

Haley quickly grabbed the Maple Syrup and began squirting it all over her pancakes; Derick laughed.

"Thanks, Kristen, so nutritious," I said with an eye roll.

"So Hales, you excited for your first day of grade school?" Derick asked her; she quickly nodded her head, with her mouth full of pancakes.

After she finished, the four of us headed outside and were about to pile into Derick's black SUV, but I remembered something before I got Haley into her carseat.

"Wait!" I quickly shouted. "Hales, we have to get a picture of you for Aunt Jammy." Jamila had an early session with a new client, so she wasn't able to make it today but I promised her pictures.

"Okay!" Haley said, as she ran over to the front door with her backpack on.

"Make a pose," I said as I turned my phone camera on. She put her hands on her hips, with a sassy smile on her face. "Beautiful," I told her.

"Duh," she told me as she ran back over to the car.

After getting her into her seat, the four of us began the five minute drive to the school- Kennedy Elementary School. As we pulled next to a curb, we saw two playgrounds; according to the letter the school sent, the one by the front entrance was for kindergardeners through second grade, while the one near to east entrance was for the third through fifth graders. Backpacks were lined up on pavements while kids were playing before school started. Derick and Kristen said their goodbyes and good luck wishes to Haley in the car so I could take her up by myself.

"All right," I told her as I let go of her hand at the pavement. "It says that this is the line for Mr. Shivley's class."

"I have a guy for my teacher!?" Haley asked me. "I thought only women could be teachers?"

"No, men can be teachers, too," I told her. "As long as you're happy, you can be almost whatever you wanna be."

"What do you mean almost?"

"I'll tell you the jobs I'm not allowing you to do when you're older."

Haley went over and put her backpack down at the end of the pile, then ran back over to me.

"Are you picking me up from school?" she asked me.  I put my hands on her shoulders softly.

"Of course," I told her. She smiled and moved closer to me and hugged me. I held on for about five seconds before I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "I love you."

"I love you too, mommy," she told me.

"All right, go over and play," I told her, "I see some swings over there."

"Yes!" she shouted with smile before taking off running.

I began my walk back to the SUV, a few tears streaming down my face. Derick and Kristen were talking, but once they saw me fill up the backseat, they stopped.

"Everything okay?" Kristen asked.

I put my seat buckle on, then wiped away some tears, "Yeah. Let's go to work."

****

"All right," Derick told me as we got out of the car. "So, you'll be working-"

"I don't want my brother in law and older sister like, babysitting me or giving me special treatment," I told them. "Let me find my way around on my own, please?"

"Fine, I gotta go meet my boss," Kristen said as she took off. She's a sports writer, so once Derick was traded, she applied for a job at the Tribune and got assigned to be a writer on the Blackhawks; her job is writing about how her husband and his teammates are playing.

"Just call me if you need anything," Derick told me. I nodded, and we both went our separate ways.

I walked down the hall of the United Center with my phone in hand, sending pictures of Haley to Jammy. I wasn't paying attention, though, and I walked into someone.

"Shit!" I immediately said. Then, I looked up at him. "Sorry."

The guy was tall, with short blonde curly hair and sparkly bright eyes. He had a smile on his face as he looked down at me. "No problem, at least you ran into me and not one of the walls."

"I'm new here, so I don't really know my way around. Again, I'm so sorry," I told him.

"Oh, don't worry about it, it's completely fine," he told me, then extended his hand. "Patrick Kane, I play for the Hawks."

"Kat Stevens, the newest member of the Public Relations team," I said as I shook his hand.

"Well welcome aboard," he said. Then, his eyes began squinting. "Is there any chance we've met before or something?"

"Possibly, my brother in laws Derick Brassard," I told him. "Maybe you've seen me around at Madison Square Garden for games."

"Possibly," Patrick said with a shoulder shrug. "Well, I don't wanna keep you too long. Have a great first day, and I'll look forward to seeing all the great stuff you do as a member of the PR team. It was nice meeting you, Kat."

"Nice meeting you too, Patrick," I said with a smile, before we went our separate ways. Immediately after walking ahead, I pulled my phone back up and started texting Jammy.

"You won't believe this: I just met one of Derick's teammates! Patrick Kane...so yummy ;) i would totally do him...if you get what i mean."

2// Windy City Welcome(s)

*Kat's POV*

"WHY DO WE OWN SO MUCH SHIT," Kristen shouted as we tried to bring in our couch.

"WATCH YOURSELF IN FRONT OF MY CHILD," I shouted back at her, my muscles screaming in agony.

"Hales, what did I tell you," Kristen said to her, more calmly.

"Do as I do, not as I say," Haley told her as she watched from the stair case with her 'Aunt' Jamila.

"Come on, we gotta get this in," I gritted through my teeth.

Derick was busy at a meeting with the Blackhawks management along with Brad Richards, the guy he was traded with from New York, so Kristen and I had to manage getting the rest of the furniture in.

"Okay, a little to the left," she directed.

"All right," I said.

"Okay...One."

"Two."

"Three."

Simultaneously, we dropped the couch onto the ground, then we both flopped down onto it. We heard someone sucking their lips, then Jamila appeared in front of us with her arms crossed, shaking her head.

"What a shame," she said, "two women in their early to mid twenties, and they're so out of shape, they can't even bring in household furniture without getting all out of breath...such a shame."

"Jammy, say whatever you want but I'm not paying you to be my personal trainer," I told her.

"You should, I'm amazing," she said matter-of-factly.

Simply put, Jammy is my best non-biological friend. We met during University in New York; she majored in Kinesiology and I majored in Communications, but we had a job together at the same bookstore on campus and clicked instantly. Better than that: she loved Haley. She was only a year old at the time, and we were still living with Derick and Kristen, but Jamila took every chance she got to help out with Haley, and now Haley's practically in love with her; I'm not positive she knows that she isn't really her aunt.


"I don't even have time to go to the gym," I told her. "I got the little one in school and then I got job hunting so I don't become a complete freeloader."

"Hearing excuses just makes me want to punch people," Jammy told me.

"Hit me and my husband will kill you," Kristen told her; Jammy just rolled her eyes and took a seat in between us, as Haley came running over.

"Are we done yet?" she asked.

"What do you mean 'we'?" I asked her, "you and Aunt Jammy just sat there the whole time watching Aunt Krissie and I do this all by ourselves!"

"Uncle Derick said I'm too precious to do manual labor," she told me. My head turned toward Kristen, giving her a stern, irritated look. She just giggled.

"How can you make that sweet angel do such hard stuff?" she said, pointing to Hales. I turned back to her and saw her smiling big, her baby teeth still showing; she still hasn't lost her first tooth yet. I sighed.

"Come here, you adorable, lazy goofball," I told her, and she came running over and landed into my lap, my arms snuggling around her.

Then, the door opened and Derick appeared with a smile on his face.

"Who's the greatest brother in law in the world?"

"Bill Gates," Jammy answered, "dude's swimming in money, you know he's helping the whole family out."

"I just landed you a job interview," Derick told me, completely ignoring Jammy, she just rolled her eyes.

"Where at?" I asked him.

"With the Blackhawks," he told me. "They need someone new in Public Relations to help with coming up with new ways to get the Fans involved along with attracting new fans. Basically, all you have to do is make the organization look good, regardless of how we're playing."

"I don't know," I told him, "I'm happy you found it, but a sports team...they have such busy schedules, and they're away a lot, I can't leave the munchkin alone."

"First off, she's never alone; Kristen and I our always here," he corrected me. "And second, the job doesn't require traveling outside of Chicago. You'll get an office at HQ and access around the United Center, and you won't be required to go to away games as well, everything can be done here from Chicago. Plus, they're flexible on whether or not you work from home or in the office."

"Wow, that sounds really great," I told him.

"You're incredibly creative, and you'd be perfect for this job," he told me, "PLEASE, go take the interview."

"Fine, as long as it doesn't interfere with watching Haley, I'm up for it," I told him. "At least I finally found something to do with my damn degree."

"Oh, so I have to watch my language but you don't?" Kristen asked me, her head perking up at me.

"I mean, basically," I told her, then a smirk.

"I'm used to mommy swearing by now," Haley said, making everyone in the room laugh.

***

*Patrick's POV*

"Look away, look away," Leslie said, her hands covering my eyes.

"Oh come on, I don't care about Jennifer Aniston stripping, you know you're the only girl I want to see taking her clothes off," I told her, both of us laughing.

I just got back to Chicago after a month in Buffalo with my family and Leslie, the love of my life. We still have about a month until training camp and the preseason, but the team is starting work-outs again in about two weeks so Leslie and I made the trip back earlier this morning. I took her out for dinner earlier, and now we're settling back in at my condo watching We're The Millers. We've been dating for almost three years now, but we still live seprately; commitment and stability is important to her, so she doesn't make any big decisions until she's 100% positive of her outcome.

"This movie is so fucked up," I said, shaking his head. "I mean, this dude creates a fake family of a stripper wife and two fucked up kids just to smuggle drugs? Like dude....prioritize, man."

"Yeah..." Leslie said. She was snuggled against my chest, my arm around her keeping her close. We stayed quiet for the rest of the movie, until we got to the end when they basically become their own little family. "So.." she trailed off; I knew wherever she was going with this, it wasn't good. "What about you?"

"What about me what?"

"What do you want out of your life, other than hockey?" she asked. I was silent, as I was confused which she understood so she elaborated. "I mean, David and Rose were completely the opposite of the family type of people, but by the end of the movie, they practically wanted to stick as a family with those two kids. I don't, like, where do you stand on this whole family situation?"

I sighed; we had gotten into this conversation before: yes, we both want kids, but we both came up with different ways of being raised and different experiences, and that was where we differed. I wasn't in the mood to argue about something way ahead of us, so I just thought of the plainest, most neutral answer ever.

"I want kids, I can't picture life without getting to be a dad," I told her. The answer was good, as she sat up and smiled at me.

"You would be such a good father," she told me, then I smiled.

"Yeah, I really want a little girl."

"Why a girl? You grew up with three sisters, I would of figured you'd want to aim for boys. Besides, boys can do Hockey, and that's your specialty."

"Girls can do hockey, too," I quickly corrected her, she just rolled her eyes, "but I don't know. Everyone assumes I'm dying for a boy, and yeah, I would love to have a son, but I'm just so used to girls. Besides, Sharpy and Hos have little girls that are around a lot, and they're just the most precious things I've seen...I just really want a daughter."

"You're one interesting man, Patrick Kane," she told me.

"Yeah...I am."

***

*Kat's POV*

"I can't believe your new apartment has its own playground," I said to Jamila, as we sat on a bench watching Haley enjoy the swing set.

"Is this enough to get more time with Haley?" she asked me, with a smile.

"I mean, it's a step up from your rathole in New York," I said, shivering at the thought of it.

"Ew, don't remind me," she said, with a disgusted facial expression.

For a while, we sat in silence as we watched Haley transition from the swings to a small rockclimbing station so she could get up and use the slides. Then, I could see Jamila turn her focus on me from my peripheral vision.

"So, do you think there's a reason we're here in Chicago now?"

"Other than Derick being traded to the Blackhawks and him and my sister being the reason my child and I have a roof over our heads? Not really."

"What about Haley's dad, though?"

I sighed loudly, my hands coming up to my face to rub my eyes before I focused back on her. "Haley mentioned the same thing our first night in Chicago. I don't get it, why the sudden interest in him all of a sudden?"

"Okay, if you think there's a day that goes by where Haley's dad doesn't cross her mind at least once, you're extremely wrong," Jammy told me. "And two, ever since I met you you've talked to me about how you believe in fate; how everything happens for a reason. I don't know, you said Haley was concieved at the wedding back in Columbus, and that's not too far away from Chicago...you just gotta think that maybe there's a deeper meaning to you ending up here other than Derick's job."

I stared at Haley, she was climbing up a slide right now; I've told her a million times not to do it, but I'm not in the mood to yell at her now or anything. "No one ever really believes I'm her mom," I confessed.

"They think she's your sister because of your age, right?"

"Not that," I said. "We just look so different..."

"What are you talking about?" Jammy said. "That girl is practically a mini-Kat in training; I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing," she said with a giggle, but I didn't. Then she sighed before continuing. "She has that same independent attitude as you, the playfulness you give off in conversations, and that child is so fucking creative. Remember that time she drew on the living room walls in New York? She didn't just draw some fucked up four year old shit; she started drawing animals that we saw at the zoo the day before, and they actually didn't suck, and she had names for them all and was explaining to us what they were doing and why she drew them exactly where she drew them on the wall."

I smiled, thinking about that; she drew an elephant close to the coffee table near the couch, because whenever we would have movie nights, that was where would put the drinks and she wanted the elephants to have something to drink out of.

"Besides, she's got your nose, and those insane facial expressions you make whenever you feel strongly about something, whether it be anger, boredom or happiness; you can easily tell that's your kid," she reassured me.

"She's a pale white girl with blonde hair," I told her, "Not a chance she got that from me."

"Do you really think your 'white-as-a-toilet-seat' dad was happy when Kristen and you popped out with your moms italian tan complexion? Or how about when you had her brown eyes and not his hazel?" Jammy asked me. "Genetics is such a weird thing...but regardless of how they end up, that doesn't effect the fact she's your child, no matter what."

I sighed again. "The only thing I would ever wanna change about the night she was concieved was the fact I was hella drunk."

"And underage...tsk tsk," Jammy said, shaking her head, then giggling.

"My parents still don't know that part," I laughed. "I'd rather have them thinking I was a natural slut than an underage drunken slut."

"Don't worry, it'll be our little secret," she said, and I smiled at her thankful.

"So, how did the interview go?" she said, getting onto the topic we finally met for.

I just smiled, and looked at her. "I got the job."

"Seriously!?" she smiled, quickly leaning in to hug me. "That's great! Now you finally won't be a complete freeloader!"

"I know! This is so exciting!" I said. "I start next week, literally right after I drop Haley off for her first day; they're starting to get ready for training camp and the regular season, so I'm just gonna help with promotional stuff for the upcoming season and stuff to do with season ticketholders...all that fun stuff."

"You and Derick should hook me up with a hockey player," Jammy told me. "Back in high school when I started getting into fitness, I was a manager for the Boys Floor Hockey team, basically I just dealt with equiptement and stats...but lemme tell you, those hockey boys..." she trailed off into a smirk and I laughed.

"Speaking of that, how's your job hunt?"

"The local YMCA just hired me!" she smiled, and we pulled into a hug again. "Yeah, I'm teaching zumba classes on weekends and then the rest of the week personal training; I just have to find clients now."

"Well that should be easy, with all the food joints around here," I told her.

"I know, all this junk food makes me sick," Jammy said with a sick face.

I laughed, as Haley came running over.

"Hey mommy," she said, running over to sit on my lap and hug me.

"What's up, princess?" I asked her as I hugged her back.

"Aunt Jammy told me we could go get ice cream once I was done playing," she said. I gave a hard look at Jammy, who just shrugged her shoulders.

"Junk food makes you sick, does it?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"Ben & Jerry's is the one exception to that," she told me. I shook me head, hiding a laugh.

"Do you have chocolate!?" Haley asked her eagerly.

"Trust me, I have every flavor you can think of," Jamila said; back in New York, she would occassionally go to her clients houses to help rid them of junk food, always saving the ice cream for us and her.

"I can't wait!" Haley said, a smile taking over her face.

"Why does everyone want to spoil my child," I shook my head, as the three of us got up and began the walk back to her apartment.

"Haley loves it, don't you?" Jammy asked her; Haley just nodded her head furiously.

I shook mine, a smile on my face; this was never how I intended my life to be the past couple of years, especially at the age of 24, but I've grown to love every second of it, from my best friend, my amazing sister and brother-in-law, and of course, my amazing little six year old. Sometimes I wonder how different it would be had her dad been in the picture, but I tend to put them aside quickly. I much enjoy having her to myself.