21. Into Enemy Territory

I honestly can't believe I was able to finish this on time... don't mind errors... there wasn't any proof-reading LOL

If I Never See Your Face Again - Maroon5 ft. Rhianna

Alex stumbled out onto the sidewalk, one arm grasping onto the cab door, the other holding up Evan as she fell out behind him. Laughing uncontrollably he pulled her onto her feet and looked behind him to make sure the guys were following.

Alex and Evan hadn’t talked about her discovery at all since that morning. There wasn’t any tension between them, but neither of them wanted to bring it up again. Evan didn’t want to think about it until she had to, ie, when Jeff got home on Monday, and Alex didn’t want her to start crying again, by poking at the fresh wounds.

They got into the club quickly, without question. Max leading the way, followed by TK and Kelsey, Jordan, Cookie and his wife Emma, Kris and Jo, Rupper, Fleury.
The group stuck together, moving as one, as they made their way to a few empty tables in the back.
Normally, Max Talbot would never try to hide in the corner, but tonight he felt the need to at least 'blend in', well, sort of. It wasn’t even that anyone there recognized them, or that they were expecting trouble, it was simply the fact that they all felt like they were doing something wrong. A dozen children with their hands in the cookie jar, so to speak.

Kelsey and Cookie’s wife took off to the dance floor after depositing their jackets on one of the chairs; leaving everyone else to order drinks at the table. Alex took a seat beside Evan, taking a sideways glance at her as everyone else took their own seats.
She looked fantastic, for the most part. Kelsey and TK had shown up first with Max and Jordan; and Kelsey had gotten ready with Evan, glaming her up doing her best to avoid any heavy conversation.

Now Evan sat, her elbows on the table as she laughed along with everyone else, looking like a superstar; but there was something else below the surface, something only Alex would notice, in her smile.

Normally, Evan’s smile was contagious. It would stretch up to her eyes, lighting them, giving her whole face a carefree glow.
Tonight that familiar spark wasn’t there. Sure, she looked happy, but Alex noticed the sadness in her eyes. Evan was trying to hide the fact that she was in pain, and she was doing a fairly good job of it; enough at least, that when Max took the empty seat on the other side of her, he began to pester her immediately. “So, is it time to drop the zero and get with the hero yet?!” Max asked loudly, reaching over to slap Evan on the back. “Er… well, in this case… Gogo… I mean, he’s no me, but, he’s better than Carter.”
Evan raised her eyebrows and looked at Max, a small smirk playing on the side of her lips. “Unless you want the full, game seven hero experience cause…” Max trailed off, pointing to himself, his grin threatening to take in his ears

“Alright, that’s enough I think…” Alex said quickly, looking past Evan to give Max a warning look. But Max was too busy laughing to notice it, and he jumped up, grabbing Evan and tugging her from the table.
Alex went to stand up, trying to stop Max from kidnapping her, but Jordan moved into Evan’s set, and restrained him with a single hand.

“Relax, he’s only doing that to try and get a response from you… if you go over there, you’re only giving him what he wants.” Jordan said, matter-of-factly. Alex caught Max’s eyes and saw him grin again.
He knew that Jordan was right, and that fact alone, was the only reason he didn’t get up and chase after them.

He tried to take Jordan’s advice, and relax, but he found it hard to keep up with the conversation at the table; as Evan’s hips swayed back and forth with the music, across the room. “Does she know it was Hartnell’s wife?” Cookie asked, his question finally causing Alex to turn around, shaking his head.

“It obviously didn’t say that on the receipt and I didn’t want to tell her cause, well, she’d want to know how I randomly knew that…” Alex said, shrugging.

“I wonder what Hartnell would do if he knew…” Cookie said thoughtfully, trailing off as he took a sip of beer.

Rupper started to laugh, “fuck, that’d be something to see boys… Could you just imagine it? I mean, an affair is bad enough… fucking a team-mates wife?” He gave off a low whistle, raising his eyebrows as if he was impressed by Carter’s moronic move.

“I’d love to see the look on Hartnell’s face… I mean, I want to feel bad cause he got cheated on but… he’s such a dick.” TK said, grimacing at the thought of trying to empathize with a Flyer.

“Next time we see him… we should tell him!” Rupp yelled, slamming his hand on the table, causing everyone around him to jump.

“Agreed.” Cookie said, raising his beer and nodding as TK and Jordan followed suite.

“So… right now.” Jo grinned, talking for the first time, and nodding towards the other end of the bar.
Alex turned and followed her motion, catching sight of Hartnell, Richards and a few other Flyers, laughing at a table as scantly clad women mingled around them.
Alex felt his face fall, as the other guys busted into laughter. "Ok... first time we see him, when Evan's not around." Rupper corrected, before starting to laugh again.

“Fuck.” Alex said finally, loudly. “Carter told Evan he was spending the weekend with Richards…”

Jo glanced around, biting her lip as her eyes searched the crowd. “I don’t see him over there.” Alex looked harder, and realized that she was right.

“Two guesses what he’s doing.” Cookie said, trying to hide his grin behind his drink.

“-who he’s doing.” Jordan corrected, the two of them erupting into laughter.

“Guys, knock it off! That’s not funny!” Alex snapped, pulling off his ball cap to run a hand through his hair.
He tried to take a deep breath and remain calm, there was always the chance that Evan wouldn’t notice, after all, if she was drinking…

Alex clung to that thought, desperately hoping against all odds, that Evan wouldn’t notice the change in atmosphere or the presence of Flyers in the bar. Of course, that desire was only short lived; coming to an abrupt halt as Max decided to open his mouth, arriving back to the table, with Evan trailing behind him. “Hey… isn’t that Carcillo?” Max said loudly, nodding in the direction that everyone else was trying to avoid staring in. “Yah it is! And look there’s- oh…” He finished, his voice getting softer as he realized the mistake he’d just made.
“So… I met a girl out there and she was pretty hot… might have to take her home and plant the ’seed o’ Talbot’ in her…” He said, turning his attention to the guys and trying to pretend the last few seconds hadn’t occurred. “And you know, by ’plant the seed’ I mean, blow it all over her face…”

“That’s disgusting!” Evan groaned as she came up behind Max, her eyes darting over to where Max had been pointing.

She took in the view of what was going on, trying to pretend like she wasn’t paying attention to her fiancé’s team-mates. But she was, intently.
Her eyes scanned the entire crowd, desperately searching for a woman that stuck out. She would have to know, wouldn’t she? Even if they’d never been in the same room before, she would have to know which one she was… right?
It seemed implausible, that someone could turn her life upside down, and yet she could still not know who it was.

She sighed and shook her head sadly, the last thing she wanted to do tonight was think about Jeff.
Evan felt a strong arm wrap around her waist, tugging on her gently. She glanced down to see Alex looking up at her, his eyes full of worry as his lips pulled into a slight frown. She badly wanted to kiss those lips.
The intensity of that notion, seemed to wake her up, as if she'd been sleeping before. She inhaled quickly and glanced around, wondering if anyone else had noticed the sudden blush of her cheeks; they hadn’t.
Evan lowered herself down onto Alex’s lap, sitting on his legs in - what she hoped - was a friendly manner.

Friendly or not, Alex couldn’t help but revel in the feel of her slender form, perched on him; his arm still locked firmly around her midsection. They stared at each other for a while, drifting off into their own little world, as the bar around them faded away.

Evan leaned forward slightly, completely forgetting about her hate for PDA, as she prepared to brush her lips against his.
But she froze, halfway down, realizing that she couldn't make the same mistake twice. If she kissed him again, there would be no going back; it would be a done-deal.
The first time could be brushed away, but not the second, not again.

And then, just like that, she was completely, surprisingly, wonderfully ready.

Alex’s mind was going through the same stages, torn, between what was right and what he wanted to be right.
Evan had just found out about her cheating fiancé, would it be taking advantage of her to lean forward and brush his lips to hers? Or if he whispered the three little words that he’d already said to her a million times?

They both felt that spark, the connection, the pull. Evan looked away for a second, a subliminal goodbye to the world that she’d come to know, as she glanced back at the people that she should have been better acquainted with.

It was then that she saw Mike.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Four Kicks - Kings of Leon

It was a feral, guttural sound that escaped Evan, her body lunging off Alex, as Mike made eye contact with her. “Evan… Evan? Where are you… oh shit.” Alex sputtered, moving to get up and chase after her as she crossed the dance floor towards the awaiting Flyer.

When he got to his feet, Alex realized that he wasn’t alone. The rest of the boys were standing up too, all of them following Evan with their eyes; some looked excited, some intrigued - all of them looked like men, united with a singular purpose.
Before Alex had any kind of rational thought, centering around possible repercussions, he was back beside Evan.

“Oh hey… what’s up, buttercup?” Mike Richards smirked, only his eyes betraying his cool demeanour as he glanced back and forth between Evan and the fuming Penguins that had come to encircle the table he was currently occupying.

“A long way from the Burgh, aren’t yas?” Hartnell laughed, pulling his chair closer to Mike, in an attempt to get closer to the action. Jordan snorted, as Rupper balanced forward on the balls of his feet, waiting to lunge.
Max moved up to stand next to TK, as Cookie’s hands balled up into tight fists. Alex, seeing the reactions of his team-mates, wanted to diffuse the situation; before Evan’s dirty laundry became headlining news… Penguins Invade Philadelphia, Cause Mass Damage.

“Where’s Jeff?” Alex said finally, grabbing onto Evan’s upper arm and pulling her back towards him. “He’s suppose to be with you, isn’t he?”

Mike cleared his throat, taking a sideways glance at Hartnell. “He had to step out for a bit… should be here later on. Why don’t you boys just take off, you can leave the broad here.” He finished, earning a few choice chuckles from the men behind him.

“Don’t you fuckin broad me!” Evan yelled, loudly, finally losing her composure. “He was suppose to be with you, and he’s just not? Where are they?” She almost hissed, pulling out of Alex’s grasp, in order to lean over the table and stare Mike in the eye. “The Hilton, again?”

Pursing his lips, Mike glanced back at Hartnell, who managed a shrug, before looking away; clearly uncomfortable with the amount Evan appeared to know. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said finally, staring back at her with animosity. “But if I were you, I’d fucking learn some respect… instead of hanging out with a bunch of-”

But just what Mike thought about the Penguins, Alex and company weren’t about to find out. Two seconds later, Mike was standing up clutching his nose in his hands, blood pooling out between his fingers.
The punch that had broken his nose, didn’t come from the most obvious of people. No, Cookie and Rupp were still standing motionless, only now they were gawking at Evan, whom was clutching her bruising knuckles in her other hand. “Fuck you, Mike. And you too. You’re all a bunch of conceited, low-life bastards…” She spat, turning around and heading away from the table group of gaping spectators.

Alex took off after her immediately, gratefully grabbing their coats from Kelsey, who was standing by the door with an anxious look on her face; the assorted jackets of his friends, shared between her and Jo’s arms.
He tugged it on as he followed after Evan, catching up with her almost a block away, shivering as she leaned against the building. “Come on Evan… I’ll grab a cab and take you home…” He said, shaking out her jacket and helping her pull it on.

A bunch of loud laughter caused him to turn from her, just in time to see the rest of their group pouring out onto the sidewalk. “Ma belle, Evangeline!” Max yelled, his arms raised above his head as he cheered her name.

“That was fucking awesome…”, “totally amazing!” Came the random words of support, as they came to a stop a foot away from where Alex and Evan were standing.
Evan gave them a sad grin, allowing Alex to pull her into a one armed hug.

“Alright now… let’s head back to Evan‘s, and go celebrate Mike Richards’ getting bossed by a girl!” Jordan suggested, the words rolling off his tongue with a sort of religious reverence.

Evan nodded slowly, but glanced up to address Alex directly when she spoke next. “You guys go on ahead, we’ll meet you there… we got a courtesy call to make at the Hilton.”