***author's note: New story that is about six months in the making. The story takes place during two time periods. Now, which is February 2014 to the end of the season and then, which is the 2008-09 season. Now obviously isn't now but it was when this story idea was first conceived, so timing isn't perfect. although the timing is off, the story wouldn't leave my brain, so I'm going for it. Now is first person and then is regular third person, so hopefully that's not too confusing. I hope you enjoy the story. My plan is for weekly updates and as always your feedback and thoughts are enthusiastically encouraged. Also I just couldn't in good conscience use Kathy's real name in this but I'm sure you will figure out her "character" name pretty easily. thanks and go pens!***

Now

The rumors started right before the Olympics.

They started in sales, because that's where all the rumors started. Most would think PR. The occupation lent itself to gossip mongering but the Pens Public Relations department kept it pretty professional in regards to scuttlebutt in the Pittsburgh Penguins front office. They were usually too busy putting out fires, to ignite any more. From sales it traveled quickly to marketing, then trickled down to accounting and then finally to me.

The rumors typically took a long time to get to me and once they did, they pretty much flamed out. Not one to keep the chain going, I usually spend my days holed up in my office with my attention focused on hotel occupancies and line item budgets, not the breaking news of who had been caught with their pants down during the latest road trip. A one person department, I don't have the time or energy to indulge in office gossip that often rivaled most area high schools. And even if I did, who would I tell? The plant in the corner? My stapler? It's a solitary job, I knew that when I met Claude. That was just the way it was for the travel secretary of the 2009 Stanley Cup Champions, Pittsburgh Penguins. Although after nearly five years, that prefix was growing tired and increasingly panicked that a supposed dynasty would just fizzle out in the end. Not that it really mattered much to me. Despite being employed by the organization for over four years, I don't pay much attention to the win/loss columns.

Not anymore.

No, rather than wins and losses, I care more about where the Pens are playing rather than who and what the result was. I don't memorize stats, I memorize airport codes. A win for me was booking 40 plus rooms at the New York City Westin right in the middle of the Christmas rush. My series sweep would have been clear weather for the team plane to make it to Vancouver with out needing to make an emergency landing in the middle of Wyoming during a freak blizzard in early October. Trying to find a four star hotel for 67 players, coaches and staff along with about 800 pounds of team equipment in a town with the population of 146 in the middle of a snowstorm at 2 o'clock in the morning had been my playoffs. The Bear Lodge in Dayton, Wyoming was my Stanley Cup and Tongue River High School's sole school bus for transportation was my Conn Smythe. Despite the stress and nearly impossible string pulling, that fall in 2011 had been my shining moment.

I don't follow hockey. I'm surrounded by it but I don't follow it. I haven't for years, much to the chagrin of Molly and Dad. Instead, I keep my head down, input codes and dates and go home to the quiet but comfortable life I've become accustomed to at the age of 26.

To some it seems exciting. To most actually. People are always amazed at my job and how did I get involved in something like this? How glamorous it must be to have the Consol Energy Center as your office and Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby as your coworkers?

Well, a) it didn't quite work that way and b) once upon a time it had been amazing, but it wasn't anymore.

Not anymore.

It had been a literal water cooler moment when the rumor finally made it to me. I'd ventured out into the halls of the front office to fill up my water bottle when I ran into Sue from accounting.

Immediately I could see that Sue was dripping with anticipation.A dowdy mother of two college aged boys, Sue had been with the Pens since the first time they'd won the Stanley Cup. She stared at numbers all day, through her inch thick black rimmed spectacles. So needless to say, she was excited to spread a juicy nugget to the only person more anti-social than she.

"Rebecca, have you heard the news?" Sue asked me excitedly,even her mop of frizzy hair was electric.

I glanced at the stout woman and pressed the button that dispensed the cool filtered water into my tumbler. I had a tension headache the size of Texas. Now that Olympic planning was over I was working frantically to get the rest of the year done before my vacation began in 3 hours and 47 minutes. Hours spent staring at check in and check out dates had nearly made my eyes crossed.

"What news?" I mumbled. There was always something brewing around the FO. It was inevitable when you had a front office crew that could understudy for the cast of The Office and a team of elite athletes playing just a few floors below.

It was like high school, but worse.

So much worse.

"It's Sidney. He's getting married!" Sue said animatedly, obviously thrilled.

My blood ran cold.

"Wh..wh..what?" I asked shakily, desperately hoping Sue won't notice the stammer.

A whooshing is circling through my ears and suddenly the fluorescent lights seem too bright. I feel a grapefruit settle in the back of my throat, and beads of sweat collecting at my like someone has stuck an IV of espresso in my veins as I feel my blood bouncing beneath my veins. I try to focus on just casually fiddling with the top of my insulated cup, trying hard to not bring notice to my suddenly shaking hands.

"Sid, he's engaged or is about to be anyway. Amber in sales found out from laundry who found out from one of the trainers who overheard it in the locker room after practice last night. Evidently Katy is meeting him in Sochi and that Sid is going to pop the question there! Can you believe it? The floor's been buzzing all day about it."

Sue keeps talking but I don't hear anything Sue is saying.

Sid is getting married.

To Katy.

Katy Lanier has been Sidney Crosby's off and on girlfriend for years now. She'd pop up here and there, but then disappear for a while. The FO ladies were always taking bets on the current status of the team captain and the fitness model that graced magazine covers monthly.

Things had been quiet for a while, so much so that most had figured Pittsburgh's golden son was single again.

I usually stayed out of those conversations. Self preservation.

Sue is still talking but I can't listen any longer. I'm excusing myself from Sue and walking blindly and briskly down the hall, hoping desperately that the tears won't fall, at least not before I make it to my office. I can feel myself with each step falling apart, piece by piece. All I can do is stare at my Christian Louboutin pumps that I got with Molly at Nordstrom Rack when she was last in town. I stare at the dove gray patent leather knowing the route back to my desk by heart and knowing that after all this, I'm strong enough to make it back to my space, my sanctuary before I totally humiliate myself.

I make it without a second to spare. I twist the lock and draw the blinds and collapse into my chair and let the sobs wash over me.

I take the rest of the day off.

Two and a half weeks later, seven players and one coach returned with medals that shone gold and bronze, some victorious, others bogged down by the agony of defeat.

That same day I return to the Consol after my much needed two week vacation. I greet my co-workers and set my bag and coffee down at my desk, pull out an envelope and take a deep breath.

Fifteen minutes I emerge from the VP of Operation's office, my resignation now official.

The time has come. At the end of the 2013-2014 season I will be no longer a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization. The past years had been hard and I question if they were even worth it.

But I stayed; I persevered, because part of me still had held hope.

I believed some how, some way, something would change.

That it would be like before.

That I would be like before.

That he would be like before.

But I'm just a glutton for punishment.

I walk slowly back to my desk.

I'm a fool. A stupid broken hearted fool.

What I don't know, as I take my seat and power up my Mac, is that I'm not the only one.

Then: September 2008

The sky was dark and the air cool with a light drizzle when she'd stepped off the bus that had dropped her off in front of what appeared to be a giant igloo.

Three years she'd lived in Pittsburgh and she'd never noticed the dome shaped building that sat smack dab in the middle of downtown. Staring at the building critically, Rebecca Cooper furrowed her brow as she realized she had no idea how to get inside the unusual building and she quickly realized the post-it on which she'd written down all the vital information she needed for today was sitting next to her laptop on the kitchen countertop of her small apartment. She held the bus schedule over her head, hoping the makeshift umbrella would hold up long enough for her to find shelter and not turn her dark recently flat ironed hair turn into the ball of fuzz this weather inevitably brought.

Breaking into a light run, she was thankful for the easy red flats she'd chosen to wear, along with the wool grey skirt and navy blue blouse she wore underneath the light jacket she'd grabbed, clearly underestimating the unpredictable early Fall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Prior to the start of her college career, she'd only been to this city once. When she was nine years old. But that hadn't been to sight see or take in a game.

The drizzle had upgraded to a steady rain as Rebecca eyed a number of entrances that were covered with gates and locks and anything else you needed to keep even the savviest of miscreants away. Well miscreants and new interns it seemed.

The rain had disintegrated the bus schedule into a messy glob of inky pulp and her hair was quickly falling back into its natural waves as the rain began to pelt even harder. Rushing closer to the building Rebecca prayed desperately for an open door or at least an awning. The comfortable flats were cheap Target suede and were quickly becoming soaked through and completely ruined as the steady rain caused large puddles to form at record speed. Finally, as if the thick grey blanket of clouds had parted and her own personal guardian angel had floated down, Rebecca heard a voice calling her name.

Blinking through her soaked and spiked eyelashes, Rebecca was able to make out a figure coming from an open door that must have looked like another block of ice in this giant glacial spectacle because she could have sworn she'd just looked down there and seen nothing but smooth white siding.

Nevertheless, she jogged towards the figure and as she came closer she recognized the man from his picture.

Claude Renard.

As a child, she'd thought the name of her father's best high school buddy was hilarious, all these years later, she was just grateful to see the plump and friendly man smiling at her as he gestured erratically calling her to him and ushering her inside.

"Oh geez there, come in, come in." Claude said concerned, as Rebecca rushed in past the man and his large belly.

She stood there for a moment, relishing the heat of the building as it coated her in warmth. Residual rain dripped from her nose, ears and chin, giving her the always attractive drowned rat look.

It was definitely not the impression she wanted to make her first day on the job.

Was it a job if she wasn't getting paid?

Growing up just out of Philly, she'd known her whole life that she'd go to college in Pittsburgh. She'd gotten a full scholarship to Pitt, which had been her first choice. Actually, it had been her only choice.

Her mother had gone to Pitt, gotten her undergrad in social justice, then nearly completed two years of law school before she met Rebecca's dad on a girl's weekend trip up to Niagara Falls. She and Mr. Cooper had met in the casino bar and ended up staying up all night talking. Meredith was visiting from Pittsburgh, Daniel visiting from Mississauga. By sunrise they were in love. A month later Rebecca's mother had quit law school, moved to Canada and gotten married. As a child, Rebecca had listened to the story of her parent's meeting eagerly, it becoming her favorite bedtime story.

Her parents had only stayed in Canada less than a year, when Daniel got a job in Wilmington, Delaware and the couple moved back to the states. A year later Rebecca came along, seven years later came miracle baby Molly and then a year later came the cancer.

An ovarian cancer diagnosis and six months later she was gone.

Meredith had wanted to be buried in Pittsburgh, a decision that had caused a number of hushed tense conversations between her parents in her mother's final months. Pittsburgh was her home, she reasoned. It was where her life had begun, it was where she would go when it ended.

There was a family plot where generations before lain. Including Rebecca's great grandfather Henry and her grandmother's little brother who'd died at childbirth. Watching her mother be lowered into the ground, young Rebecca clutched her father's hand and thought about how when she grew up, she'd live the life her mother had. She'd come to Pittsburgh, get her degree and then go to law school. Be the lawyer her mother had wanted to be. The career she'd sacrificed for true love.

Only Rebecca wouldn't go to Pitt for law school. No, she had set her sights higher. Just that week she'd sent in her application to Yale Law School for admission to the law program in Fall of 2009. Her grades were impeccable, her test scores off the charts. Not even 21 and she was only a few credits away from graduating. She'd skipped a year in high school and came to Pitt only 17 years old. That first year she'd lived with her Aunt Hilary and Uncle Dave. Her mother's younger sister was the only family left in Pittsburgh. She'd married and had two small children. The year had been trying for Rebecca. She struggled to adjust to new settings. Making friends had always been challenging. Her head was often buried in a book or in her free time she could be found scrawling notes from the stack of textbooks that lived next to her bed.

Sophomore year she moved into the dorms, which brought their own challenges, but at least she'd made a few friends. But there were too many distractions. Junior year she got her matchbox apartment over a deli near campus and had lived there ever since.

She knew the moment she arrived in Pittsburgh that she could feel her mother's presence all around her. That first year she made weekly visits to her grave that now had gradually turned to monthly visits.

Her father had never liked Pittsburgh. Mostly because Rebecca's parents hadn't liked her dad. They never approved of Meredith running off and getting married, especially because they hadn't been invited to the wedding.

The irony was that now her dad's high school buddy and former hockey teammate was the travel secretary for the Pittsburgh Penguins, which had been a blessing and a curse.

The blessing was Rebecca was getting the internship she needed to round out her application for law school and the curse was that her dad was a die hard Flyers fan and had cringed the entire time he worked out the favor from Claude.

As for Rebecca, she could have cared less all she needed were her books. Molly was the jock. Molly and Mr. Cooper breathed the Flyers, while Rebecca had spent her childhood making friends with kings and queens, wizards and goblins, dragons and dragon slayers.

But here she was, it was a means to an end and she would treat it as such.

"I was wondering what happened to ya'" Claude's voice was thick with his Canadian accent and his smile was wide, showing off crooked teeth that looked like they'd taken a few hits from the heel of a hockey stick, despite the fact that it looked like Claude hadn't put on a pair stakes in at least a decade or two.

Rebecca straightened herself and self consciously patted down her hair hoping to smush down the halo of wavy frizz that graced her head.

Collecting herself in only half a second, she smiled and stuck her hand out to properly greet the friendly man.

"Aw come here," Claude said jovially pulling Rebecca into his meaty arms and giving her a hearty hug.

Rebecca wasn't really comfortable with being touched too much so she stood stiffly in Claude's arms and waited for the awkward embrace to end.

"I haven't seen you since you were about this tall," Claude held his hand out in front of his generous belly indicating Rebecca's height when she'd been nine and Claude had come to the calling hours to give his respects to Daniel and the girls.

Rebecca gave a mumbled response and wished that they could go back to mentor and mentee, a relationship she was sure she'd be much more comfortable with.

Claude just eyed the serious girl in front of him, who was still dripping from head to toe and clearly squeamish about the current conversation and moved them right along, making a quick stop in laundry to offer her a towel.

"Well while we are down here, let me give you the grand tour," Claude said his voice laced with amusement. "Most of the staff doesn't come in til next week when training camp starts, but we do have a few guys hanging around working out or skating a bit, so we'll see what we see, sound alright to you?"

Claude looked at Rebecca curiously, as if he was gauging her reaction on how trustworthy she was to see these inner workings of the elite organization.

Rebecca put on her most professional face and nodded primly, indicating the tour could begin.

While she wasn't a sports fanatic, she wasn't an idiot either. She knew how professional sports worked, she had told Claude during her interview that she understood the need for discretion and professionalism, in fact she prided herself on that. Her neighbor's uncle was Tom Brokaw, so she was no stranger to celebrities. She'd seen the hierarchy of athletes at her high school and even more so at Pitt. She knew how they were treated and the different set of rules they abided to. It wasn't that she agreed with it, but rather she just didn't really care. It didn't affect her. She was at Pitt to get an education, she was at Mellon Arena to do a job, after that she would be on her way to New Haven where she'd get her law degree with a focus on environmental law. She'd be on staff at the law journal, nothing too demanding, a staff member but not editor, she needed to focus on her dissertation that she'd already mapped out, The Legal and Developing Law Ethics of Oil Fracking in the Appalachian Mountains. She'd join a green practice in Philadelphia, find a nice and successful boy who would become her husband, have children, buy a home in Bucks County and live her nice stable life. It was all part of her carefully laid out plan.

She had a lot to do and she wasn't going to allow herself to get all starry eyed over some hockey player and deter herself from her path. Claude had nothing to worry about.

So with that she took his lead and turned down towards the large and open concourse to begin her first day as a semi employee of the 2008-09 Pittsburgh Penguins organization.