Je T'aime | D. Mercer

CH 9

They lost. They lost to Chicago. How the putain did they lose to Chicago? Liliane didn't speak to anyone after the game. She just sat in the locker room, looking at the ground while Lindy Ruff talked.

Dawson's eyes never left her. He didn't know what she was like after a loss and to him, she seemed a lot like Jack. Interacting the least and doing the minimum until they could go home and scream at themselves for hurting their game.

Liliane was gone before Dawson got this gear off. He watched her walk away with an expression he couldn't read. Her eyes glisened over, but she seemed so... neutral to everything. He was scared for her.

...

Liliane's phone was blowing up, but she didn't pull her eyes away from the on demand game against Chicago. It was late and she should have went to bed hours ago, but she couldn't. The only thing in her head was hockey. Her hockey. How bad she played, how bad her skating was, how her warm ups didn't actually warm her up like they did against the Canadiens. There was a knock at her front door.

"Liliane, I know you're awake." Nico Hischier sounded from the other side of the door. She sighed before getting up off of the floor and walking to the door. She took a breath before opening it to face her captain.

"Hi Nico." Liliane spoke softly. Nico didn't smile. Nico didn't frown.

How do you read this guy?

"How long have you been watching the game?" Nico asks, his tiredness showing with the way he speaks.

"Nico, it's 2am. Please go home." Liliane begs. She wasn't up for being lectured right now and by the looks of it, Nico would fall asleep mid sentence. But yet, Nico shook his head no.

"I need to talk to you." Nico states. Liliane sighes, already knowing it's no hope to argue. She steps to the side to let Nico in, closing the door behind him. She walks him to the main room where she had a half-drank energy drink, a computer with their recent game, and a notebook with pencils sprawled out on the floor next to it. Nico's mood drops when he sees everything.

"How long have you been reviewing the game?" Nico asks. He never sat down so Liliane didn't either, no matter how much she really wanted to.

"Since I left the rink. Maybe... 6 hours?" Liliane says truthfully.

"You know you played well today, right?" Nico asks, well, more like states. Nico thought she played good, but she didn't. He couldn't watch her all the time and Liliane knew that.

"Just because Bedard had an extremely good game tonight does not mean you did bad, that the team did bad. The score wasn't 0-5. It was 6-5." Nico spoke. Liliane looked down.

Five points should win you a hockey game.

"We can't get another goalie without trading one of our best players. The defensemen need to step up." She needs to step up. Liliane looked past Nico and to the wall behind him. She couldn't look him in the eyes or else she'll see the disappointment in his face.

Except, there was none. Nico nodded along to every word she said, listening as contentaly as he can with it being 2am.

"Can I see your notes?" Nico asks while is eyes look over to the scribble filled paper. Liliane nods and picks it up off of the floor and hands it to Nico.

"Period 1 is a couple pages back." Liliane whispers. Nico's eyes widen.

"You've takes pages of notes?" Nico says. The girl in front of him nods.

"I wrote down everything from warm ups to shaking hands at the end of the game." Liliane admits. She wasn't proud of this. Making herself seem insecure about the way she plays, in front of her captain if anything.

"Tomorrow, well, later today, I'll come over again and go through this with you. I don't believe everything you've written down." Nico says while skimming over a few lines in each period. Liliane nods. Dawson is going to be over, too.

"Dawson's going to be here too. I told him he could come over." Liliane informs. Nico nods and hands back her notebook.

"Go to sleep, Liliane. I'll be able to tell if you didn't at practice tomorrow." Nico says as he slowly walks to the door. Had Nico forgotten there isn't practice tomorrow unless you've been called in?

"Okay." Liliane says as he opens the door and starts down the hallway.

"Nico?" She says before he's too far away. He turns around and nods.

"Who told you... that I'd be awake?" Liliane asks. Nico smiles.

"Pierre. He sent me a DM after the game. I think he was watching it." Nico says before he waves goodbye and rounds the corner to the elevator.

Pierre watched the game?