Author's warning: There's a lot of talk about hockey in this story and it may be lost on people who weren't raised in the culture. Apologies. If you get through the shop talk there's lesbian sex with a moderate dom/sub element. Enjoy!
Chapter 1.
Kate loved hockey.
That wasn't particularly strange. In Northern Ontario, where the winters brought dozens of feet of snow and temperatures that would sink to thirty degrees below zero, the weird ones were the ones who didn't love hockey. But even in the town of Port Ferry, where the year was divided into Hockey season and getting ready for Hockey season, Kate was a special case.
She knew where it'd come from. The only child of a nickel miner who'd very much wanted to have sons Kate(then Katie MacGregor) found that hockey was her one way to bond with her often stern, distant father. Every Saturday night she would get to curl up on the couch with him as they'd root on their team. There wasn't much of an opportunity for girls to play hockey in those days but she learned the game as well as anyone. Even during the week, after being sent to bed, she'd stay up reading smuggled newspaper accounts and listening to games on the radio. Soon when she'd watch hockey with her father she found that she had to bite her tongue when her father would say something wrong or out of date.
A psychologist might not find it all things strange, all things considered, that when Katie started dating she always seemed to gravitate towards hockey players. Sure, the fact that they tended to be big, muscular guys didn't hurt but for Katie it was all about the game. If one of her beaus suffered an injury that kept him out of the line-up or was mired in a goal scoring slump he would often find his calls not returned. Looking back, Katie knew that had been tremendously immature of her but that was just the kind of girl she'd been. Nothing a guy could do would turn her on more than score a few goals or have a solid fight. She was very much a Puck Bunny.
So maybe it was inevitable that her predilections might throw her a change-up or two. It was the beginning of her freshman year of University, only a week after she'd moved to the big city, that she met Doug Stewart while out at a bar. He might have been turned on by her because Katie had grown up gorgeous. She had a long blonde hair, brown eyes, a dazzling smile and a knockout figure. Katie was turned on because he was a young pro player who'd just been called up to the big leagues and had scored a goal and lost two teeth blocking a shot in his first game. He had good speed and a wicked wrist shot. He was so into her that he wanted to take her back to his place. She was so into him that they didn't make it further than the back seat of his car.
It was less than two months later (and only after a week's worth of throwing up in her dorm room's bathroom, two separate pregnancy tests and a nervous doctor's visit) that Katie learned that she'd perhaps been a little hasty when she'd told Doug that she didn't care if he didn't have a condom on him. Katie had thought about giving up the baby but, deep down, she knew she could never do that. She'd told Doug instead and after he learned she'd be keeping the child, true to Doug's similarly traditional upbringing, he proposed. Katie accepted. Telling her parents she was getting married would be a lot easier, even at eighteen, then telling them by herself that they had a grandchild on the way. A quick trip to Niagara Falls later and she was Kate Stewart. Her parents were not thrilled, especially when she'd told them that she was leaving school, but seven months later when she gave birth to Riley they could not have been any more overjoyed at the sight of their grandson. Her mother had come to the hospital with a little teddy bear, her father had come with a tiny hockey stick.
Doug's pro career was not a success. Injuries limited him to just two frustrating seasons in the pros. So, at just twenty-one years old with a two year old son and already four months pregnant with twins, Katie moved with Doug north to his hometown of Port Ferry. Doug would become a partner in his father's medical supply business and Kate gave birth to twin boys, Parker and Casper. Doug threw himself into the business, expanding it thanks to the help of his local celebrity and some of the money he'd made in the pros, and saw both his profits and family keep growing. Kate gave birth to her daughter Kelsey two years after that.
By the time Kelsey was born, the twins were already skating and Riley was already on the local team. Doug flooded the backyard into a rink every winter and, blessed with their father's genes and their mother's encouragement, her boys took to the game passionately, staying outside playing until their cheeks were practically blue in the winter and yelling "Car" and playing with a ball in front of the house in the summer. It was clear to both Kate and Doug that their boys were going to be special.
Which is why Kate began to practically live at the Port Ferry Arena. She woke up at five in the morning almost six days a week to drive one of her sons to practice and was often their late into the night for one of their games. She raised money with bake sales and raffles with the other moms for new uniforms, a new scoreboard or whatever the place might need. She and Doug used to joke that the way they kept their marriage fresh was that they only saw each other a few times a month. As her sons grew and got noticeably better than anyone in town, it started to not be so much of a joke. She'd travel with her boys when they'd go on all-star tournaments to other provinces, the States, even once in Germany. When, at age six, Kelsey had informed Kate that she wanted to play hockey too, Kate's hesitation had not been out of concern for her daughter's safety but because she didn't know if she had the time. But Kate relented and afterwards found herself at the rink for the girls' league games too.
Kate didn't mind the time spent at the rink one moment. She relished every minute of watching her babies play the game she loved. It broke her heart when first Riley and then the twins had left home at sixteen to go play their Major Junior hockey in other cities but, for Kate, that simply meant she had to drive further on the weekend to see them. Kate devoted herself day and night to being a hockey mom.
Which is why, as Kate sat in the stands watching the Port Ferry High Falcons senior girl's team skate onto the ice for their opening game of the season, her heart broke more than a little. Kate was forty-two now. Her days as a hockey mom were coming to an end. Her boys had all grown up and become pros. Riley was twenty-three, playing in Boston, and widely regarded as one of the better young defensemen in the sport thanks in part to having grown to be six foot six and well over two hundred pounds. Casper and Parker had been first round draft picks in the previous year's draft and were now, for the first time in their lives, on different teams. Casper, the goal-scorer, was in California while Parker, who even as a four year old had been willing to drop the gloves at a moment's notice, was in New York. Katie called them every week, watched their games on TV and would even take the occasional flight to watch them play if they were nearby but it wasn't the same. They were all millionaires with girlfriends and lives of their own who had little time for her. She was proud of them as all get out but had let them go.
So it was Kelsey, her baby girl, the high school senior who was beginning what would be Kate's last year watching one of her children play. Kate had always thought it adorable that Kelsey, who even at eighteen barely stood five feet tall, had chosen to be a goalie. She was always the smallest girl on the ice but didn't lack for a quiet competitiveness that Kate always admired. Kelsey was not especially good but Kate suspected that was because Kelsey didn't really love the game and had only taken it up to take part in what was essentially the family religion. Kelsey was a good high school player but would go no further. She would be moving out east for University to study marine biology and would be gone at the end of the year.
"Forecheck!" Kate screamed in the nearly empty stands, girl's high school games being a tough draw even in the hockey mad town. Still, Kate did draw a few looks from the few scattered men in the audience. She was still a striking woman. Her blonde hair had stayed that way and her figure had gotten even fuller after having her kids. Hard work at the gym had kept her slim and fit and Kate was often mistaken for a woman ten years younger than she actually was.
The game was never in much doubt. The opposition didn't have anyone who could match #19 on the Falcons. The tall, impossibly quick Centre was easily the best player on the ice. She was a brilliant skater with breath taking acceleration and had great hands and vision. Kate roared as #19 scored the first goal of the game only thirty-six seconds in, stealing the puck behind the net and skating out to tuck it in on her backhand. She cheered as #19 scored three times in total in the period and assisted on two more. Both helpers coming on easy tap-ins after her set-ups had left the goalie and defenders hopelessly out of position. The opposition scored twice in the second period but after each goal, both of which Kelsey made valiant attempts on, #19 simply scored on her next shift as if in response. The girl was relentless, going after every goal despite the lopsided score. When the final period ended the score was 14-2. #19 had scored nine goals, assisted on three others. It was a dazzling, dominating performance.
As was the custom, the two teams shook hands and made their way to the dressing rooms as Kate made her way over there as well. The only other particularly excited fan in the crowd, a rounded, red-faced man in his mid fifties, was standing near the exit as well. Kate smiled and said hello.
"If it isn't the First Lady," Jacob Gasteux replied cheerily, referring to the nickname Kate had earned around town. "Quite a show, huh?"
