Sticks, Jocks & Love?

Chapter Eight:

Two Can Keep A Secret If One Of Them Is Dead

Nate was very surprised to find that Hannah was one heck of a fussing woman, and he had never really pledged her as the fussing type. When they had finally fallen asleep at the crack of dawn Nate had expected they would sleep at least until noon, instead he woke up just a few minutes after ten and found him self alone in Hannah’s bed while the air was filled with the a riveting aroma.

It was the kind of gut wrenching, mouth watering scent that made you instantly hungry, and reminded him of how it was when he had been a small boy, sitting at his grandparents kitchen as Grandpa cooked his famous BBQ ribs (the same BBQ ribs that had made the Sticks, Jocks & Hockey Grill & Bar famous, way back in the day); now, this time didn’t smell like pork, but the effect was the same: He had to have a bite of whatever it was being cooked.

Nate got up slowly, knowing from experience that sudden movements were out of the question if he wanted to remain upright and in possession of his dignity; he went as far as to brace himself, first against the bed and then against the wall, as he followed his nose out of Hannah’s room and in search of food.

He found Hannah in the kitchen, she was wearing sweat pants, a plain white t-shirt and bunny slippers, her beautiful strawberry-blond hair was gathered back with a big hair claw and she was stirring a big pot of something as it shimmered on the stove.

“What are you doing?” Nate asked, moving closer and letting go of the wall, as he felt steadier on his feet. He hated concussions.

“Chicken’ noodle soup,” Hannah said, turning to look at him and offering him a rare smile. Brief as it was, I made him feel better. “You need to take your medicine and you can’t do that on an empty stomach, plus, this always made me feel better.”

Nate was touched. “Do you need help?” He asked.

“No, no, no, no; you sit down, or better yet, go lie down, I’ll let you know when it’s ready, it won’t take long.”

“I’ll sit down here,” Nate said, settling on a high stool by the kitchen counter. “Shouldn’t you be at work?”

“I called in sick,” Hannah said a little abashedly. “I got the whole week off. And so do you, by the way. Mr. Stratton called earlier and he said that you should stay in bed for at least five days and go for another check up at the hospital before going back to training.”

“I know; it’s standard procedure.” Nate said. “I’ll call him back later.”

“Have you… gotten hurt a lot?” Hannah asked, sounding just a bit anxious.

Nate smiled. “No more than any other working player in the league. Few bruises, few broken bones, couple of concussions… comes with the job. The first thing you must accept, in any sport, is that you’re never going to be a 100 healthy again: something it’s always going to be hurt or need work or be in recovery; that’s just the way it works.”

“Sounds awful, I could never do that,” Hannah said.

“No more awful than enduring screaming, demanding children every day, but you do.”

“I do have to put a lot with you, don’t I?” Hannah said a little wistfully and Nate found himself nodding before her words sunk in and he let out an outraged “Hey!”

Hannah giggled, declared herself satisfied with her food and ladled some into a bowl and carried it carefully to where Nate sat. “It’s hot, so be careful.” She advised, and served him a glass of iced tea to go with it, and then went to look for the pills he had been prescribed.

Just as she approached the counter again, medication in hand, she heard Nate grunt and her heart skipped a beat and then began to beat fast. “What’s wrong? You alright?” She asked worriedly.

“Oh, this is good!” Nate said, pausing just long enough to do so while he shoveled soup into his mouth. “And I should know, my Mom is from the south, and everyone in her family has a recipe for it. Even my Dad has one for it because my Mom used to crave it when she was pregnant with me, and he’s from the Northwest. But this is so much better than his.”

Hannah flushed with pleasure, her cheeks turning red and clashing with her hair. “Oh, well… Thanks.” She said shyly and gave him his pills.

“You sure can cook,” Nate said as Hannah served him another helping of chicken noodle soup. “You only did it that first time I came over, all the other times we ordered in, I thought you couldn’t cook.”

“Of course I can cook, I can cook all the basics: lasagna, Mac and cheese, chicken and dumplings, two different types of chowder, veggie soup, and about 20 different things with potatoes. I had to learn when I was younger, back when I was in middle school we were mostly living on Dan’s scholarship money, so we had to stretch it as much as possible, so I went around our apartment building asking our neighbors for easy recipes.”

“Must have been hard.”

“It wasn’t a joy ride, but Dan made sure I had everything I needed and I tried to help back as much as possible. Some of our neighbors were very kind, some were too worried with their own problems to be kind but we made it through.” Hannah said but she wouldn’t meet his eyes.

Of course she and Dan had made it out okay, away from the place they had fallen into after their parents had died leaving them less than 100 dollars in their bank account, they had lost the house and Dan had just barely managed to keep Hannah from being sent to foster care; Dan had worked himself to exhaustion to keep his scholarship and federal grants for academic excellence and at the same time keep them both feed and clothed and with a roof over their heads.

They were okay now, but Hannah knew too damn well that there were times when, no matter how much he tried to reassure her they would be okay, Dan hadn’t been so sure.

Hannah was grateful when Nate didn’t question her further and changed the subject; asking her something or other about the kids of her class and if they had managed to finally pick a name for the ferret they had adopted as class pet.

Hannah could see what he was doing; Nate was trying to make her feel comfortable, as if to say trust me, be comfortable with me. It was tempting, Hannah had to admit, she has not a very trusting person, more from experience than by nature. In her mind her only family was Dan, her only friend Aka. Nate seemed to exist in a limbo: someone that mattered to her but she wasn’t sure how much or in what way. It was a bit messed up, Hannah admitted… but part of her preferred it this way, because if Nate was in a limbo, then she wouldn’t have to deal with her feelings, whatever they were, about him.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Dan was getting a little worried, he had to admit, Hannah had sounded funny when they had talked early that morning, she had been vague and distracted; her mind clearly elsewhere. So he had decided to pick her up after work and take her to eat so they could talk and he could find out what was bothering Hannah and fix it for her. That’s right, when it came to his baby sister he was a complete fixer and he wasn’t in the least bit sorry about it.

So, he had changed a few appointments and told Jess he would meet her for a late dinner and drove over to Hannah’s school, but when she got there Hannah was no where to be found. Aka had seen him looking around and had gone to say hi, flirting like mad but that was Aka for you, Dan didn’t take it seriously.

“Where is Hannah?” He asked after a few pleasantries.

“What do you mean? She called in sick two days ago and hasn’t shown up since, I called her the other day and she said she was fine, not to worry. I thought you would know, doesn’t she reports to you, like, four times a day.”

“She used to,” Dan admitted. “But she hasn’t lately. And I talked to her in the morning; she didn’t mention anything about being sick. She sounded fine,”

“Maybe she’s feeling better now and will be back to work tomorrow.”

“Still, she should have told me.”

“Maybe she didn’t want you to worry.” Aka said.

“Maybe,” Dan said but he didn’t agree. “Well, I’m going to go to her place, see if she needs anything.”

“Tell her I said hi,” Aka said and they parted ways.

Dan drove over to Hannah’s building trying to talk him self into being calm and not do anything irrational. There was probably a good reason why Hannah hadn’t told him she was sick – if she was sick – it was probably like Aka had said, maybe Hannah didn’t want him to worry. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time Hannah concealed a sickness just to spare him the worry.

Dan knocked on Hannah’s door, calling her name, but there was no answer, and the worry he had talked himself out of leaped back to life. He tried again, knocking more strongly, but there was no answer. So he reached for the spare key he kept in case of emergencies and unlocked her door and let him self in and immediately wished he hadn’t.

Now, Dan wasn’t prude by any stretch of the imagination, he liked sex as much as the next person, but there were things an older brother was never supposed to know about his baby sister, like the fact she was banging his fiancée’s cousin.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It had been a bit of a revelation to live with Nate while they couldn’t have sex, they literally spent all their time together and, though sometimes they made out a little, sex – which seemed like such a big fundamental part of their relationship – was out of the question until the doctor gave his okay.

Hannah found out that she and Nate actually had more in common than just getting kinky together. They could talk about any number of subjects besides their jobs (meaning Hockey and her class); they liked the same TV shows and movies. And it was just plain fun.

Then, two days after, Hannah had driven Nate to the hospital for his check up, holding her breath all the way and praying that everything was okay and that Nate hadn’t sustained any long-term damage. Nate looked fine to her but one never knew.

The doctor had said that Nate was fine, and a second CAT scan showed no signs of brain swelling and everything was in working order. The doctor said that Nate should take another couple of days off training but that he could resume all other normal activities.

Taking this to heart, Nate had pounced on her the moment they had closed her apartment’s door and they barely made it to the couch before they were making out and doing away with each other’s clothes. They were so wrapped in each other that they didn’t hear the knocks on the door or Dan yelling her name through the door.

They were beyond that.

But, as it turned out, Dan was quite good at making himself be noticed once he screamed in horror, banged the door and yelled at both of them to put their clothes back on and stop behaving like a couple of adolescents in heat.

Now they were in for it.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

End of Chapter Eight