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A/N: Jad heehee thanks for recounting your experiences from your ole days in the Broadmoor or whatever freaking posh places you used to stay in woohoo!
Chapter 68: Dru III or The Land of Nuts and Fruits—Beginning of a Long Night
Drury had been amongst all the guys who had piled on top of Robbie in celebration once the final second of the game ticked away. Mounds of food receptacles and other garbage flew from the stands onto the ice, but at that moment no one had cared. Shoot, this was almost as much fun as winning a playoff game! What angel had sat on Blakie’s shoulder to win this one? It was great!
"Give him air!" Patrick was howling behind them. He was sliding in his street shoes, laughing and tugging at jerseys until he finally was able to pull the guys back. "I knew you could do it!" Patty laughed when he finally reached Blake, and he gave him a tight hug.
There was a loud moan from Blake and Drury stood back a bit as an ecstatic trio of Footer, Patty, and Keaner grabbed Rob by his arms and hauled him to his feet. Drury could still hear Blake moaning it sounded like he was drunk or something. He was barely skating on his own as the men wrapped their arms around him and slid him off the ice and into the runway.
Drury and the rest of the guys went past Blake into the locker room, everyone patting him or barking congrats. Chris also accepted their nods too; after all, it was he who scored the game-winner. Damn this was great!
"Wooo!" Drury hooted.
"Don’t touch me!" Blake howled as he stumbled into the locker room.
Drury and the rest of the team quieted to look at him. Blake was rocking like an aggravated elephant and he was wringing his hands together. Keaner was shaking his head, looking sympathetic, and Patrick too had the same expression. Both of them, though, were standing a good four feet away from him.
"Are you hurt?" Drury asked quietly.
"Am I hurt!" Blake yelled. "Am I hurt?"
"Shhhh," Coach Hartley hissed into Chris’s ear. "Give him some space."
"What?" Chris asked.
No one said anything for a moment as Blake stood, trembling in his gear. Finally he leaned forward a bit and looked at himself. "Get me out of this! Now!" Blake howled.
Instantly, Patty jumped forward and so did Keaner and Cloutier, and they began tugging off all the gear that was weighing on Rob. Drury shook his head. He couldn’t imagine how all of that felt. Blake grabbed the helmet, and ripped it off, throwing it like it were a hot piece of metal. Drury was startled to see the spooked, agitated look in Rob’s eyes. He almost looked like a completely different person.
"You’re nuts!" Blake snapped grabbing Patrick by the front of his shirt. "You’re nuts! How the hell are you doing this by choice! You can’t be normal!"
A small grin played on Patty’s lips. "Calm down," he said quietly.
"I mean it!" Robbie roared. "And all of you are... are basterds! Dammit! Dammit! Letting Deader through like that? Who am I gonna kill here what does it cost to get good defense here! Aaaaargh!"
With that howl, Blake fell back on his butt and he began muttering to himself. Patrick sat on the floor next to him, rubbing his back and talking softly. Drury sighed and began pulling off his jersey. Blake would be better in a few minutes, who knows what kind of stress he must have gone through.
"Jeezers!" Noter said to Chris, "I hope he’s gonna be OK for the press conference."
"Press conference?" Drury asked.
Noter nodded. "Yup, they Coach just told me to tell you guys that there’s gonna be a press conference in a few minutes and to hose Robbie down and get him out there. Everyone wants to talk to him."
Drury whistled. "That’s gonna be good."
"Hey, Patty!" Drury barked.
Patrick looked up from Blake and fixed a dull blue gaze on Dru. "Eh?"
"Get Robbie hosed, there’s gonna be a press conference," he said.
Patrick nodded.
"Oh and how’s Abby?" Drury asked.
All the men in the locker stopped movement and looked at Patty.
"He’ll be OK," Patty said. "They took him to the hospital as precaution, but will probably be bruised chest."
Blake groaned and fell to his back. "I definitely need a tape of this one," he mumbled.
Back on the team bus on the way back to the hotel, Blake was the belle of the ball. He had calmed down considerably and after the press conference he now seemed to be feeling the importance of what he had just done. Drury sat back quietly, smiling as he saw the half-lidded, grin painting Robbie’s face. Patrick would not leave Robbie’s side either, he was laughing and joking about trading positions on the ice with him, and Robbie was shaking his head in mock terror. Hams, Drury thought, the both of them. He was pretty sure Robbie was gonna be insufferable in the upcoming weeks.
Drury yawned and leaned back in the seat, Peter was already snoring a bit next to him. They wouldn’t be leaving for Vancouver until late the next morning so Dru was looking forward to going back to the hotel; crashing in bed and sleeping in until it was fifteen minutes left ‘til they leave. He closed his eyes and then opened them in annoyance when Peter’s head fell on his shoulder. "Ugh," he grunted and shoved Peter off him.
"What?" Peter mumbled and looked around, blinking.
"Sleep on someone else’s shoulder," Chris snapped.
Chris could see the glow of Peter’s white smile in the darkened bus. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "Just sleepy."
"Whatever," Chris muttered and leaned away from him, staring at the traffic outside.
All the way to the hotel room, Blake was yakking in Drury’s ear. Not even yawning dramatically over and over got the point across to Blake to shut-up. Tears kept flooding his eyes from his constant yawning and he barely saw the world around him as he stumbled into the hotel room. The bed was firm and cool as he flopped down on top of it. "Oooo," he sighed as he buried his face into the pillow.
"Man I’m starving!" Rob exclaimed.
Drury looked up from his pillow. "What?" he asked. "Rob, how can you even have energy after what you just did? Man I got exhausted just watching you!"
Robbie blinked and grinned. "I don’t know," he said. He sat down on the bed and began drumming his fingers on his thighs as if he were keeping tune to some music. "My blood is rushing," he continued. "I just feel... alive!"
Drury yawned again and glared at Rob. He was in no mood to hear the constant philosophical, self-glorifying drivel that goalies often used to describe themselves suddenly coming out of Blake. "You’re not gonna keep me up are you?" he grumbled. "Go hang out with Patty if you’re gonna wax poetic or compare notes or something."
Rob laughed heartily and Drury dropped his face into his pillow again. Even the sound of Robbie’s laugh was irritating to him at this point.
"Hey! I did something real historic here," Blake said. "I won a game! I saved your asses, stood up and stood in front of the net like a man!"
Chris almost choked on his pillow and he looked up, narrowing his eyes. Blake had suddenly gone turncoat! "Yeah! And who scored the game winner?" he snapped. "Ass!"
Blake laughed again. "Thanks kid," he said. "I almost lost myself for a moment there. I got a little of Patty’s posts in my system still."
Drury looked at Blake, and Blake looked back at him. He couldn’t figure the expression on Rob’s face except that it was a little puckish. Blake wasn’t blinking either. Posts? Chris thought. Christ, he was in no mood to hear talk of posts!
"BOO!" Blake cried suddenly jumping forward at Chris.
"Aaaah!" Chris screamed and he jumped off the bed like a scared cat. Blake fell back on his bed laughing and red faced. "You freak!" Drury yelled.
"I’m sorry," Blake giggled standing up and wiping tears off his face. "You go to bed and I’m just gonna go out to get a soda from the vending machine, do you want one?"
"Sure," Chris said. "Get me a Coke." Chris watched Rob leave and when he was gone, he fell back on the bed again and sighed. "Jeezers! He’s gonna turn into a freak, isn’t he?"
About ten minutes had passed and Chris was just beginning to drop off to sleep when the door was flung open and Rob cried. "Hey, Dru! You gotta see this! The New Jersey Nets are staying in this hotel and they ordered a ton of escorts and there’s way too many! The place is crawling with beautiful hookers!"
With that, Robbie ran out of the room. Dru frowned and slowly got off the bed.
"Dammit," he muttered. "He didn’t even bring me a coke."
He limped a little as he went to close the door and as he put his hand on it to close it; a large, voluptuous female blow-up doll startled him as it floated down the hallway. A giggling Pascal Trepanier followed it. Trep look at Dru and gave him a thumbs up. Beautiful ladies!" he said.
Dru watched Pascal as he followed the doll and he shook his head. He knew if he were smart he would close the door and go to bed and therefore be unable to snitch on anyone when Hartley no doubt demanded an explanation tomorrow morning. But he wasn’t sleepy anymore and he was curious.
"Shit," he muttered as he left the room and closed the door behind him. "What am I getting into?"
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