| Three weeks had flown by since new of Eric's call up had hit Wilkes-Barre. The team was beginning to worry about Brielle, who had thrown herself headfirst into her work. Colby worried more than anyone else on the team. But at the same time, he was trying to keep himself occupied and away from Brielle unless absolutely necessary, and was trying desperately to ignore Mac's "encouragement." It was no secret that he wanted to be with Brielle, but he was doing everything in his power to stay away from her, for his own safety's sake; if Eric found out that he had hit on Brielle, he would surely come back from Pittsburgh for the sole purpose of beating the hell out of him. Then he would go right back to the NHL. Since Eric was no longer in Wilkes-Barre to keep her sane when the work load piled up, Brielle hardly ever leaving the arena except to go home to sleep, and half the time she fell asleep at her desk. She was so bombarded with work, she hardly had the time to do anything anymore. It was after practice one day that she decided that she needed an assistant. Toby was sitting in her office, trying to fix the green Game Boy that Brielle had buryed in her old gym bag while Brielle tried to get some filing done. The rest of the team was going through their normal routines, nothing out of the ordinary. Brielle suddenly looked around her messy desk, which was usually immaculate as Brielle was a bit of a neat freak, and sighed. She crossed her arms on the desk and put her head down, closing her eyes to try and block out all the annoying aspects of being a coach. "What's wrong?" Toby asked, not once taking his eyes off the Game Boy. He was determined to make it work again. "This is too hard. I'm not cut out to be a coach," Brielle muttered, her head still in her arms. "Yes you are," Toby replied, still fiddling with the Game Boy. "No, I'm not." "Yes you are." Suddenly the Game Boy came to life. "Yes! I told you, this battery thingie was loose." Brielle lifted her head and frowned. "Toby, you are not helping." "I'm sorry," he said, watching as the graphics for Frogger loaded onto the small screen. "But you are cut out to be a coach." Before she could get out a word, Toby continued. "We're winning. We don't hate each other. We don't hate you. And we actually like coming to practices, even if they're three hours long. As long as we don't have to do sprints because Endo did something stupid, we like coming to practice." He paused the game and looked up at Brielle. "You're a great coach, and if you ever think otherwise, I'll have to hurt you." Brielle gave a half smile. "Thank you. But it's not that; I could do all that in my sleep. It's-" "You have been doing all that in your sleep," Toby interrupted. "You're like the walking dead. You need a break." "What I need is a lobotomy," Brielle muttered, standing up and beginning to pace around her desk. "It's the techincal aspect of coaching that I can barely deal with. That's why I haven't seen my apartment in three days, I've been falling asleep here every night," she said, motioning toward her desk. "Three days?" Toby asked, pausing the game. "Ellie, go home," he said, standing up and walking toward her. "You need sleep." "I got sleep," Brielle argued, falling for the cat-and-mouse game Toby was playing. "I got about seven hours of sleep, right here, on my desk," she said, running around the table, away from Toby. "I'm talking about sleep in a bed," Toby argued, chasing her. "Brielle, go the hell home already!" Toby suddenly turned a corner faster than Brielle did, and grabbed her around the waist. He picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder. Brielle was too amazed at Toby's ability to perform the task in the first place; at five feet nine inches, he wasn't much taller than she was. But when she realized that she was dangling from Toby's shoulder, she began to protest. But by the time she had started to kick and scream, Toby had walked into the lounge and was about to toss her onto the couch. "Will someone please take our coach home?" he asked, pausing before dropping her. "She needs sleep, she just told me that she's been here for three days straight." All the guys in the room made faces. Mac grinned and looked at Colby. "Army'll take her home, won't you Arm?" Colby whipped his head at MacDonald, frowning. "Why do I have to?" Toby walked over to where Colby was sitting on the couch and dropped her onto his lap. "Because you're the rookie, that's why. Take her home and make sure she sleeps." Colby tried to protest, as did Brielle, but Toby was immovable. "Go home," he said, frowning. He turned to Colby. "Arms, if she bitches, just pick her up and drag her there." "I'm not gonna bitch," Brielle muttered, standing up. "I can go myself, ya know." "I don't trust you. I'm sending Army to make sure you sleep. Now go, and we'll see you tomorrow." Brielle frowned, but walked out of the arena, followed by Colby. |
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