Holiday Weekends Prompt Snippets!
Dec. 24th, 2014 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleI didn't cobble together enough holiday spirit to send cards this year, I'm feeling a little stuck on my current writing projects, and I have a few days off for holidays this week and next week, so it seems like a good time to do prompt snippets.
Leave me a prompt by the end of the day Saturday and I will write you something by the evening of January 4. (If there are a lot of prompts or circumstances change, posting may extend beyond this date.)
Fine print/guidelines: One per person. Lurkers and anonymous commenters welcome. If you're posting anonymously because you don't have an LJ account but I know you elsewhere and you leave me your name, I will do my best to write something catered to your tastes. Generally first come first served, although things may jump the queue depending on inspiration and what can be written at work. I will write hockey, but not Patrick Kane, Drew Doughty, or the Avalanche. I may write other fandoms; feel free to ask if you want something else. I may veer from your prompt. I will take lyric prompts, but be forewarned that I'm not necessarily good at them. This is for new story ideas, not sequels or timestamps. I make no promises about length, but in the past prompt snippets have tended to be 300-3000 words.
Leave me a prompt by the end of the day Saturday and I will write you something by the evening of January 4. (If there are a lot of prompts or circumstances change, posting may extend beyond this date.)
Fine print/guidelines: One per person. Lurkers and anonymous commenters welcome. If you're posting anonymously because you don't have an LJ account but I know you elsewhere and you leave me your name, I will do my best to write something catered to your tastes. Generally first come first served, although things may jump the queue depending on inspiration and what can be written at work. I will write hockey, but not Patrick Kane, Drew Doughty, or the Avalanche. I may write other fandoms; feel free to ask if you want something else. I may veer from your prompt. I will take lyric prompts, but be forewarned that I'm not necessarily good at them. This is for new story ideas, not sequels or timestamps. I make no promises about length, but in the past prompt snippets have tended to be 300-3000 words.
hearts have gone cold (2/3)
Date: 2015-01-07 04:40 pm (UTC)"Still fatigued?" Dr. Lacroix asks him.
"Yeah," Carey says. "More than I usually am even after training camp. My chest is sore, and I keep having to wake up in the middle of the night to piss, which is just making me more tired." There's no reason not to be upfront with the doc about what's going on.
Dr. Lacroix makes notes, and then puts down his pen and looks right at Carey. "Look, Carey, you have the gene. Is there any possibility you could be pregnant?"
Carey starts to say no, but then he thinks about P.K. and Olympic camp and goes cold all over.
"We used a condom," Carey says. His voice sounds very far away. He's never liked what hormonal birth control does to his body. Condoms have always been enough.
"That's good," Dr. Lacroix says, "but condoms are not always one hundred percent effective. Let's do a test, and then we'll know what we're dealing with."
It comes up positive, and Carey has to put his head down and breathe deeply for a long minute.
"We're going to keep you off the ice," Dr. Lacroix says when Carey feels well enough to sit up.
"No," Carey says. "I'm not keeping it."
"It's just a precaution," Dr. Lacroix says. "Until you're sure."
"I'm sure now," Carey grits out. "I'm," he does some quick math, "barely a month along, and I'm not keeping it."
"We'll make an appointment for you," Dr. Lacroix says. "As soon as we can. Until then, you're off the ice."
*
Carey doesn't answer P.K.'s phone calls or texts, but the persistent knocking on his door is harder to ignore.
"What do you want?" He's been off the ice for two days, and his appointment still isn't until tomorrow.
"Just checking on you," P.K. says.
"I'm fine," Carey says. He's not.
"My app says you're out with flu-like symptoms," P.K. says. "But I know you and you're not having flu-like symptoms."
He's not, because he's fucking lucky enough not to be suffering from morning sickness.
Carey folds his arms over his chest. "None of your business, Subby." It kind of is, and Carey would normally answer whatever questions P.K. thought to ask.
P.K. hasn't been smiling, but now even the pleasantly neutral look on his face disappears to be replaced with the beginning of a scowl. "Pricey-"
"Just stop," Carey says. "Just-"
P.K.'s look turns from angry to concerned. "Carey."
It hurts too much to have P.K. caring about him and not having it be the way Carey wants. "This is your fucking fault," he snaps. "You knocked me up, and I don't want it, and they still won't let me back on the ice until it's done."
P.K.'s face goes through a range of expressions too fast for Carey to read them. "You're pregnant?"
"I'm not keeping it," Carey says, in case P.K. missed the important part.
"But you're- It's mine?"
"It's not like I was letting anyone else fuck me," Carey snaps. "I'm not having it, my appointment is tomorrow, and then I'll be back on the ice."
P.K. sits down on Carey's couch, uninvited. "Can we talk about it? I mean, we didn't plan on this, but maybe-"
"No," Carey says. They're not like that. This isn't going to make them into some sort of happy family. And even if it did, "I'm not missing a season. I'm not missing this season."
P.K. isn't happy when he leaves, but he leaves.
*
Carey decidedly does not like the way the pill they give him makes him feel, the extra time he has to be off the ice while his body stops being pregnant, or the way P.K. will barely look at him when it's not about hockey.
*
The change in Carey and P.K.'s usual interaction doesn't go unnoticed.
"You have to be in good with your D," Buds advises.
"I noticed you and P.K. aren't as tight this season," Gio says. "If you ever want to talk."
Danny takes him out to dinner. Prusty takes him out for a beer.
Things with P.K. get a little easier, but they're still not friendly.
Carey misses him desperately.
hearts have gone cold (3/3)
Date: 2015-01-07 04:40 pm (UTC)P.K. laughs and switches keys with George. "Is that important facial hair business?"
The switch puts P.K. in the room adjoining Carey's, and he shoots a look at Carey that says he knows it too.
There's no avoiding it, so after Carey gets a little settled in - shoes off, changed out of his suit - he opens the adjoining door on his side.
P.K. looks surprised to see it already open when he opens his door, but as usual, he recovers quickly. "Hey, man."
"Hey," Carey says.
"This is like some junior high level shit," P.K. says.
It startles a chuckle out of Carey. "Yeah, I guess."
Then he just looks at P.K., because he doesn't know what to say. He's not going to apologize, because he's not sorry for any of it.
P.K. sits down in the chair at the table and twists from side to side for a second. "Were you even going to tell me?"
It's not where Carey thought P.K. was going to start. "No."
P.K.'s mouth twists. "I didn't think so." He leans forward, elbows on his knees. "That's the part that really pisses me off."
"Fuck you," Carey snaps. "It's my body. It was my choice."
"Fuck, I know that," P.K. says. "You know I know that."
Carey does; he's heard P.K. talking about personal autonomy enough times to know that.
"Look, I'm not saying that you made the wrong choice or that you shouldn't have done it," P.K. says, "because I get it. You might not have a chance in four years. But we had something good going on. Like, really good, and then you just shut me out of this really big thing that actually kind of involved me."
There's too much in that for Carey to process all at once. "We did?" he asks.
It takes P.K. a second before he replies. "Yeah," he says, sounding sad. "We did. Or I thought we did."
"I thought we were just hooking up," Carey admits. He's sorry about that now, looking at the regret on P.K.'s face.
P.K. pauses. "I'm sorry I let you think that," he says after a moment. "But we were still friends, and that should have been enough for you to trust me." Then he stands up. "I think I'm going to order room service and have an early night. I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow."
"Yeah, sure," Carey says, because he doesn't think there's anything else to say.
The click of P.K.'s door closing sounds very final.
*
They don't start hooking up again, and they don't even spend time together alone, but P.K. slowly starts hanging around Carey in groups again, and Carey responds in kind by sitting next to P.K. at team meals and throwing jokes his way.
They get approving looks from most of the team, and even Stephane taps Carey's pads with his stick at the end of a practice and says, "Glad to see you and P.K. looking better."
They aren't going to have all the things Carey wanted them to have, but at least they can be friends.
*
Carey gets the call about Team Canada while he's at the rink. He says all the right things, "Thank you," and "It's an honor," and he means all of it. Out of all the goalies Canada has, they chose him.
P.K. gets a call too.
"Really I wanna tell Pricey that I love him," P.K. tells the 24CH crew later, like the lounge isn't small enough for Carey to hear every word he's saying, "but I don't want everybody to know."
Carey knows P.K. doesn't mean it the way he wants him to, knows they can never go back, but when P.K. comes over to say it to him and kiss his cheek, it feels like forgiveness.
Re: hearts have gone cold (3/3)Holy
Date: 2015-01-07 05:09 pm (UTC)Thank You!!!
^_^
Re: hearts have gone cold (3/3)Holy
Date: 2015-01-07 05:24 pm (UTC)