Off the Ice |D. Brassard|

Chapter 3

Gianna's POV

*10 MINUTES LEFT IN THE THIRD PERIOD*

I'm walking down to ice level to celebrate the (hopefullly) win. I spot a few empty seats next to the tunnel, which I, along with Kaylee (my sister-in-law), take a seat. The two of us donning different McDonagh jerseys certainly grabs Ry's attention on the bench. I see Girardi point to us and, along with my brother, wave to us. That, then, grabs Brass's attention, who waves to us as well.

We wave back and watch as the final seconds tick down on the scoreclock. As the final horn sounds, we win the game.

Everyone is skating over to Hank to congratulate him, it was then that I decided to go over to the tunnel.

"Kay? I'm going down to the tunnel, I'll meet back with you guys later!" I yell over the crowd and the music. She nods and tells me to be careful as she stands up to walk back to the WAG suite.

As I'm weaving my way through the MSG crowd, I realize that I have a very uncanny resemblence to my older brother. We have the same eye color, dimple on the same side and the same hair color. The only huge structural difference that isn't gender-based is that I'm 5'4" as compared to him being 6'1".

I finally get to the tunnel and lean against the iron bars. The team begins to walk off.

Since I'm standing against the glass, I'm able to fist bump everyone coming off. Derick comes off, after speaking to the coaching staff, and does something that I would never expect.

He stops, comes over toward me, grabs me by the waist and lifts me up and over the bars and takes me into the tunnel.

I try to ask him what he was doing but I'm guessing he doesn't hear me.

After the 3 stars of the game are announced, we walk down to the locker room.

"I'm gonna make sure everyone is decent in the before you go in there so you aren't blinded. Once we get in there, your brother knows that I'm gonna be introducing you to the team, formally. Sound good? Think of it as the initiation into the NYR family." Derick says, laughing toward the end. I nod, relieved that my brother knows that this is happening.

I get the go ahead from Derick and I walk into the room, noticing that everyone has pants on but a few don't have shirts on but I'm okay with that.

Ryan stands up and walks over to me, leaning to give me a hug but I push him away because he was all sweaty and stuff.

"Alright guys, this is my younger sister, Gianna," my brother's voice booms through the seemingly silent locker room. I wave slightly. "And I don't want anything happening to her. Consider her off-limits until she turns 19, which is in 6 months, sound good?"

There is a unanimous murmur of ok's throughout the locker room.

I'm already acquainted with the coaching staff, who are very nice people.

A lightly accented voice speaks up saying "Hi Gianna, I'm Henrik." I turn around to see that Henrik Lundqvist, himself, is standing behind me with his hand waiting for me to shake it. I shake his hand and say the typical nice to meet you.

He must have started a small trend in the locker room because everyone else starts to do it to.

Cam Talbot, Chris Kreider, Dan Girardi, JT Miller, Kevin Hayes (who is a hugger), Kevin Klein, James Sheppard (also a hugger), Tanner Glass, Marty St. Louis (which I was a little star struck about, as he is someone I look up to as a person), Marc Staal, Rick Nash, Dan Boyle, Keith Yandle, Jesper Fast (another hugger), Dominic Moore (another person I look up to), Ryan Bourque, Chris Summers (yet another hugger, damn this team is full of huggers) and Matt Hunwick.

Step, my brother's best friend and a close friend of mine, walks on over and pulls me into one of his bear hugs.

"It's been too long lil Mac, I've missed you. Why did you leave me with this idiot?" He says, pointing at my brother.

I laugh at Ry's reaction and hug him back.

He pulls away, as Derick comes into my view with two other guys.

Another hugger, I think to myself, as Carl Hagelin, as he had introduced himself to be, pulled me in for a hug. God, do all Europeans smell this good?

He pulls away, just to be replaced by Mats Zuccarello, yet another European hugger that smells good. I could get used to this.

I excuse myself from the locker room so the guys can get showered and dressed. But I find myself sitting on the floor, due to the lack of a bench. I see a suited figure sit down next to me. I turn my head to see that a certain Mats Zuccarello had sat down next to me.

"You know Brass likes you, right?" He says, almost out of nowhere.

I had no clue how to respond to that, but I nodded anyway.

"Good, just as long as you know. But I don't think Mac will cut off his balls if he hangs out with you, right?" He asks, with an amused glint in his eye.

"Why are you asking me this? But I doubt that he would." I ask him, laughing a bit.

"Hmmm, I'm not sure. I'm gonna take a guess and say that you've lived with him for a decent amount of time so I would presume that you knew but I could be wrong," he says back, sarcastically.

We both laugh at the whole conversation.

"You seem like you would be an interesting person to text. Like one of those people that you could text at 3am asking if you wanted to get Wendy's and they'd go," Mats says, thinking out loud.

"Well, if you would like to go on one of those 3am Wendy's runs, I would guess that you need my number, 'm I right?" I say, countering him.

He hands me his phone, as I hand him mine, and type my number in.

We give each other their phone back and stand up, as my brother had walked out of the locker room with Derek and Derick.

"I'm guessing that Step is staying over," I half ask my brother, who nods in response.

I walk over to Derick and Mats, who are having a conversation about God-knows-what, to say goodbye. I hug each of them and say goodnight.

I walk back to my brother and the one friend that could be my brother, seeing as we are that close. We walk out into the players' parking lot, hop into Step's car and head back to the apartment.

A/N Hey guys!!!!!! Sorry it's been so long since the last update, I had a lot going on for school. I don't know when the next chapter of this will be up but if you are wondering where I've been, I put an author's note on They Can't Tell Us Anything. I'm going to try to get another chapter of this story up on either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on what I'm doing. But this is up now, I hope you enjoy this and leave your feedback, as usual. Bye <3